


c:m> 



DECLAMATIONS 

Jditedbj} E.D. SHURTER 




Class 






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Book Q & 



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COPYRIGHT Dm)S£fc 



Winning Declamations 

AND 

HOW TO SPEAK THEM 



In Two Parts 

Part I — For Intermediate and Grammar Grades 

Part II — For High Schools and Colleges 



BY 

edwin Dubois shurter 



y 



PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 




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LLOYD ADAMS NOBLE, Publisher 
31 West 15th Street New York City 



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Copyright, 1917, 
LLOYD ADAMS NOBLE 



v- 

FEB 23 1917 



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CI.A457176& 

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PREFACE 

This book contains declamations, from three to 
five minutes in length, which the editor, as a teacher 
of public speaking, has been collecting and testing 
for a number of years. Practically every selection 
in this volume has been tried out in class work and 
in public contests ; hence the major title of "Win- 
ning Declamations." Although some "old favorites" 
are included, a large proportion of the prose selec- 
tions, and several of the poems, have never before 
appeared in a work of this character. 

The declamations are intended for training the 
public speaker, and not the dramatic reader or mere 
entertainer. The element of interest, however, has 
been a controlling factor, hence declamations have 
been chosen that present vivid pictures, concrete 
situations, or advocate principles and policies that 
are of present moment. In other words, the selec- 
tions are of such a character that a pupil may adopt 
the words as his own and speak them with the pur- 
pose of convincing and persuading a present-day au- 
dience. 

The minor title of the book indicates a feature 

iii 



iv N Preface 

which differentiates this work from the ordinary 
Speaker in two particulars : 

First, there is an introductory treatise on delivery 
covering the essential matters pertaining to the 
technique of oral expression and public speaking. 
For teachers desiring a minimum of theory and 
maximum of practice, this book is well adapted for 
use, not alone as a reference book for selections, but 
also as a text-book for a beginners' class in speak- 
ing, or as an advanced reading-book for the seventh 
or eighth grades. 

Secondly, the declamations are edited with refer- 
ence to the interpretation and delivery. True, this 
sort of editing may easily be overdone, since there is 
danger of losing sight of the personal equation as 
different individuals react upon a given selection; 
but it was thought that some general suggestions as 
to interpretation and delivery by one who has made 
a special study of the selections would be helpful 
to and welcomed by teachers and pupils. In some 
cases, where the construction is simple and no 
special comment has seemed necessary, none is 
offered ; that is, no effort has been made to explain 
the obvious. 

The author desires gratefully to acknowledge his 
indebtedness to Professor Raymond G. Bressler, of 
the University of Texas Department of Extension, 
for his assistance in selecting and editing the selec- 



Preface v 

tions, and also in the preparation of the Introduc- 
tion; to Allyn & Bacon, publishers of Shurter's 
Public Speaking, for the use made of portions of 
that text in the Introduction to the present volume ; 
also to publishers of copyrighted material designated 
in subsequent pages. 



CONTENTS 



INDEXED BY AUTHORS 

Author Title Page 
Alexander, Cecil Frances. .All Things Bright and Beauti- 
ful 119 

Allison, Joy Which Loved Best? 122 

Anonymous Aspirations 131 

Anonymous A Southern Court Scene 97 

Anonymous The Liberty Bell 137 

Anonymous The Victor of Marengo 94 

Bacheller, Irving Scientific Farming 91 

The Little Old School of the 

Home 44 

Bailey, Joseph W Texas — Undivided and In- 
divisible 255 

Bain, George W Life Lessons 88 

Beecher, Henry Ward Importance of Little Things. . . 52 

Squandering the Voice 33 

The National Flag 252 

The Reign of the Common 

People 278 

Bennett, Henry H The Flag Goes By 128 

Bigelow, Herbert S The Apostle of a New Idea . . . 241 

Blaine, James G The Death of Garfield 259 

Borah, William E The Haywood Trial; Plea for 

the Prosecution 239 

Boynton, Nehemiah The Homeland 297 

Braley, Berton The Thinker. 175 

Browning, Robert Prospice 140 

Bryan, William Jennings. .Against Militarism 219 

vii 



viii Contents 

Author Title Page 

Bryan, Guy M The Child of the Alamo 72 

Burkett, C. W The Modern Farmer 108 

Burrill, David J Incentives to Patriotism 115 

Casement, Roger To Liberate Ireland is not 

Treason to England 215 

Caxton Magazine Nothing to do but Work 75 

What's the Use 273 

Chambers, Robert W France at the Opening of the 

Great War 208 

Chapman, Arthur Where the West Begins 142 

Chemnitzer, Ivan The Rich Man and the Poor 

Man 135 

Clark, Esther M The Call of Kansas 146 

Cross, L. M Have an Oil Can Always with 

You 41 

The Curse of Selfishness 100 

Curtis, George William. . . . Fair Play for Woman 224 

The Eloquence of Wendell 

Phillips 235 

The Minute Man of the Revo- 
lution 284 

The Public Duty of Educated 

Men 280 

Darrow, Clarence S The Haywood Trial; Plea for 

the Defence 237 

Dunbar, Paul Laurence . . . Right's Security 179 

Eytinge, Louis Victor Savannah's Apple of Courage 63 

Finch, Francis M The Blue and the Gray 162 

Finley, John H The Thirtieth Man. . . . 270 

Franklin, Benjamin The Way to Wealth 81 

French, Virginia L. . . 1 . . . . The Palmetto and the Pine ... 169 

Frye, William P The Protection of American 

Citizens 217 

Grady, Henry W A Plea for Prohibition 66 

Love and Loyalty of the Negro. 77 

The Home and the Republic. . . 39 

Gregory, Thomas Watt . . . Southern Types 265 






Contents 



IX 



Author 
Guerard, Albert Leon 

Harris, Virginia Fisher. . . . 

Harrison, Jake H 

Hemans, Felicia 

Hillis, Newell Dwight 

Holland, Josiah Gilbert . . , 

Horn, P. W 

Hubbard, Elbert 

Hunt, Leigh 

Ingersoll, Robert G 

Jerome, Jerome K 

Kipling, Rudyard 

Kleberg, M. E 

Lane, Franklin K 

Lee, Fitzhugh 

Leslie's Weekly 

Lieberman, Elias 

Lindsey, Ben B 

Lippard, George 

Lockhart, Will P 

Long, L. G 

Longfellow, Henry W 

Lowell, James Russell 

Mackay, Charles 

Mansfield, Richard , 

Malloch, Douglass 

Martin, William Wesley. . . 
Meek, Alexander Beaufort 



Title Page 
The Dead Hand of the Past in 

Europe 213 

The Cross of Honor 184 

To the Man Behind the Plow . 129 
The Landing of the Pilgrim 

Fathers 167 

The Woe of Belgium 210 

Gradatim 161 

The Different Kinds of Gossip 42 

A Message to Garcia 250 

The Masterpiece of God 293 

Abou Ben-Adhem 173 

A Plumed Knight 199 

At the Tomb of Napoleon: .... no 

Ambition 92 

// 153 

Recessional 156 

Houston's Crowning Glory. ... 56 

The A merican Spirit Incarnate 22 1 

The Making of our Country's 

Flag 112 

The Flag of the Union Forever . 54 

War 205 

I am an American 50 

The Boy and the Juvenile 

Court 106 

The Liberty Bell 59 

A Texas Mockingbird 133 

The Power of Ideas 287 

The Day is Done 182 

Thou, too, Sail On! 188 

A Day in June 176 

Song of Life 121 

The Eagle's Song 151 

The West 143 

Apple Blossoms 159 

Land of the South 144 



x Contents 

Author Title Page 

Miller, Joaquin Columbus 180 

For Those Who Fail 134 

The Defense of the Alamo .... 189 

Mix, Melville W The Individual as a Power 

Plant 34 

Moses, Bert Efficiency and Riches 291 

O'Reilly, John Boyle Little Brown Hands 126 

Ousley, Clarence N Life's Retrospect 302 

Parker, Theodore The Children of the Poor 103 

Peabody, Francis G Commercialism and Idealism. 276 

Phillips, Wendell Revolutions 268 

The Eloquence of Daniel 

O'Connell 232 

Poe, Edgar Allan .Annabel Lee 186 

Powell, E. P Pumpkin Pie 70 , 

Prentiss, S. S New England's Fairest Boast. 79 

Progressive Farmer Love Your Farm 68 

Purinton, Edward Earle. . . The Efficient Optimist 247 

Rands, W. B The Wonderful World 118 

Roosevelt, Theodore America and International 

Peace 201 

Root, Elihu A Pan-American Policy 203 

Ross, Edward A What is a Good Man 274 

Ross, Sam Walter The House by the Side of the 

Road 165 

Scoville, D. C Truth and Victory 282 

Shakespeare, William ..... The Power of Music 158 

Shaw, Leslie M Wealth and Aptitude 61 

Sheppard, Morris Eulogy of Washington 226 

Smith, William Hawley . . . The Other Fellow 49 

Smith, Marion Couthouy. .A Toast 171 

Smith, T. F On the Death of David Crockett 174 

Sprague, Leslie Willis The Still Undiscovered A merica 289 

Springer, John W My Kingdom for a Horse .... 83 

The Pioneers 263 

Stafford, Wendell Phillips . Liberty under Law 245 

Tennyson, Alfred Crossing the Bar 154 



Contents 



XI 



Author Title Page 

Thomas, John M The Man and the Soil 261 

Thurston, John Mellen. . . . Shall the Monroe Doctrine be 

Abandoned? 243 

Twain, Mark The Coyote 86 

Van Dyke, Henry Texas 148 

Vest, George G Man's Best Friend — His Dog. 85 

Vincent, John H The Girl in the Kitchen 101 

Waters, N. McGee A Young Man's Religion and 

His Father's Faith 295 

Wescott, John W The Destiny of Democracy. ... 197 

Wheeler, Benjamin Ide. . . . Christianity and Life 229 

Whipple, E. P Books 257 

White, Emma Gertrude. . . Night-Fall 193 

Whittier, John Greenleaf . .In School Days 123 

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler Solitude 192 

Williams, Wilson The Greatest Battle Ever Won . 47 

Wilson, Woodrow Education and Trade 37 

The Mission of America 300 



INTRODUCTION 

HOW TO BECOME A SPEAKER 

The keynote of success in public speaking is 
everlastingly keeping at it. People may be born 
rich, good looking, healthy, but they are not born 
orators, although the Latin poet said they were. Just 
as you learn to walk by walking, to swim by swim- 
ming, so you learn to speak in public by speaking in 
public. The time when it is necessary to argue the 
importance of teaching public speaking in schools 
and colleges is past. The platitude that if you have 
something to say you will say it well, is losing its 
significance if it ever had any. Too many people 
have tried that plan and failed to make tenable any 
further belief in such a doctrine. 

Learning to speak in public is very much like 
learning to swim. You may become a past master 
of the science of swimming as given in books, but 
before you can swim you must get into the water. 
Similarly you may become thoroughly familiar with 
the science of public speaking, but before you can 
make a creditable speech you must speak in public. 
On the other hand, how many people have you 
heard of who learned to swim by being thrown into 
the water? A few, we will admit, but generally 
these few acquire hap-hazard strokes that are un- 



2 Introduction 

natural and difficult to overcome in subsequent ef- 
forts to develop good form in swimming. Most of 
them thus treated, however, had to be fished out 
more dead than alive. When a man without any 
knowledge of the science of public speaking makes 
a speech, figuratively he is being thrown heels over 
head into the audience. Because of his ignorance 
of the elementary principles of public speaking he 
is likely to make such a complete dunce of himself 
that the audience both laughs at and pities him. 
Usually he flounders through his predicament and 
comes out so disgusted with himself that he rarely 
tries again. 

Some knowledge of technique and a vast amount 
of practice are absolutely essential to ultimate suc- 
cess as a public speaker. There is no better way 
to secure the preliminary training than by means of 
the declamation. 

A declamation is a set speech of a more or less 
serious nature intended for delivery from memory in 
public. Usage has virtually made the word declama- 
tion to connote a cutting from an oration written 
and spoken originally by some person other than the 
one who is declaiming the selection. It is impossible 
to mark the exact dividing lines between an oration, 
a declamation, and a reading. You cannot place 
your finger on a geometric line and say, "This marks 
the end of declamation and the beginning of read- 
ing and beyond this point is oration." Many selec- 
tions lie in that twilight zone where characteristic 
marks are imaginary. Whether a selection is a 
reading or a declamation, then, depends on th/e 




Introduction 3 

manner of the delivery and the spirit of the piece. 
Selections that are chosen for purposes of mere en- 
tertainment, "funny" pieces, dramatic readings, 
dialogue, impersonations, etc., are not considered 
declamations. Keep in mind that a declamation 
should be prevailingly serious in tone and delivered 
for the purpose of convincing or persuading an 
audience of certain ideas or truths. 

HINTS ON MEMORIZING 

There is no royal road to speedy memorizing. 
Some people can commit pages of printed matter 
in a very short while ; others must labor untiringly 
for an indefinite length of time and still not suc- 
ceed in getting the selection as well in hand as their 
more fortunate friends. The explanations for this 
difference are manifold. It may be a question of 
method of attack. If it should be, this can be 
remedied. It may be a question of undeveloped 
memorizing ability. If it is, the quicker you take 
the exercise necessary to strengthen the faculty of 
memory the "better off you will be. It may be a 
question of being born with a poor memory. All that 
we can say for this is "hard luck." Psychologists 
teach us that our memories are birthrights and that 
they cannot be improved. Be this as it may, we 
know that the ability of the faculty of memory to 
receive, and give expression to impressions, ideas, 
or whatever you choose to call them, can be im- 
proved. For all practical purposes, this is an im- 
provement of memory, and will b,e so considered in 



4 Introduction 

the discussion that follows concerning the faculty 
of memory. 

You Must Concentrate on Your Subject 

Everyone knows that concentration on work to 
be done is absolutely necessary to accomplishment. 
It is the fundamental secret of memorizing. The 
bald statement saying that we must concentrate 
on our task is the personification of truth. But, 
like many another general statement, it is almost 
wholly worthless. Like the education of some men, 
it is so broad that it is shallow. The information 
that is most needed is how to concentrate. 

Avoid desultory reading. Loose, skimming, 
rambling reading is most pernicious in its effect on 
ability to concentrate. It is as injurious in its in- 
fluence on the mind as a steady diet of pastries is 
to the body. True, a great many selections are worth 
no more than a desultory reading, but for the sake 
of your own memory, do not make this sort of 
reading your three-meals-a-day. You must have 
more intensive reading and less extensive. Slow, 
careful, understanding reading of the selection to 
be memorized is essential. 

The selection must be of interest to the declaimer. 
In order to concentrate on a thing with a minimum 
of time, you must be interested in your selection. 
You yourself are the judge of what you like, al- 
though other people can give valuable suggestions. 
The things in which you are interested have a direct 
appeal and when heard or seen make an impression 



Introduction 5 

which can be reproduced easily. Those of only- 
casual interest make no impression. They go in 
one ear and out the other. "The New South" may 
appeal to one boy, "At the Tomb of Napoleon" to 
another, "The Message to Garcia" to a third. De- 
cidedly it would be unwise for these various in- 
dividuals to exchange selections. Each one, of 
course, could commit the other boy's selection, but 
it would require more effort and more time. Choose 
the selection that makes a direct appeal to you and 
then abandon yourself to its enjoyment. Your 
interest will be intensified thereby and you will 
cut in two the time for memorizing a given number 
of words. 

Good health is necessary. Concentration on your 
work cannot be most effective when the body is in 
poor physical condition. It takes a will of unusual 
power to conceive of a warm July day on a zero 
December morn. It takes a will of great power to 
forget about a cramp in the stomach. No will is 
strong enough to concentrate on two things at once. 
An attempt to do so results in weakened concen- 
trative ability. When a person with a physical pain 
tries to memorize, he is dividing his time between 
his body and his mind. He may accomplish his 
task but it will be only with increased effort on his 
part. Better attack the problem when in good phys- 
ical condition. 

Environment. Another element that is closely 
allied to the physical consideration of memorizing 
is environment. Unless you have learned to work 
oblivious of your surroundings you had better seek 



6 Introduction 

a quiet place. Out under the big trees of the 
forest, say some writers. If you do go out into 
nature, be sure that you won't be influenced by the 
singing birds, the glorious sunshine or the beautiful 
starlight. Individuals differ greatly as to the en- 
vironment that best suits their peculiarities. For 
some people it is best to get on a hard-seated, 
straight-backed chair with a desk in front of them 
to lean on. It makes little difference then whether 
there be noise or not. Any unusual noise, of course, 
like the cry of "Fire," might detract. The essential 
thing is to have your environment conducive to 
your most effective work. 

Use of the will. After the last word has been 
said in the matter of concentration, the fact remains 
that the only way to concentrate is to concentrate. 
You must will to do it and do it. Keep your mind 
everlastingly on the thing to be done. Every time 
you find your mind wandering off on a tangent, 
stop and bring yourself back to your task with a 
jerk. If you are reading your selection and sud- 
denly wake up to the realization that you are 
"dreaming," go back to the beginning and reread 
the whole thing. This extra work that you are 
giving your mind will soon wake it up. It is a 
little like giving a boy a piece of work to do and if 
he doesn't do it as you want it done, making him do 
it over. Your subject may become rebellious at 
first. Soon stern fate will stare you in the face and 
the task will be done as specified. It is even so 
with your mind. Often it must be coerced, but 
after a time it will become subservient to your will. 



Introduction 



Your Most Effective Imagery 

One of the first things to learn in our effort to 
memorize rapidly is the sense which affords the 
most efficient medium through which to grasp ideas. 
Because of our pernicious system of study in the 
public schools, which demands of the student that 
he study silently, the ear is little developed. In 
numerous instances the sense of hearing may be the 
very one that should be used. If you find that you 
can get a thing better by hearing it, have some one 
read the selection to you. Possibly it is best to read 
it aloud yourself. In this case you will be getting 
the information through three sources, the mus- 
cular, the visual, and the auditory, and the chances 
for quick work will be strengthened thereby. Some 
teachers insist that pupils get their memorized 
selections so thoroughly that they can see the exact 
position of the words on the page. It is never ad- 
visable to insist on this, although when a piece is 
memorized in this manner, there is little possibility 
of forgetting. The act of declaiming then merely 
becomes an act of reading without the book. 

It is possible that the easiest way for some to 
memorize may be by movement. The prevailing 
sense may be muscular. In this case writing the 
selection, or the mere act of pronouncing the words 
will be the best medium. A great many people are 
never certain that they know a thing thoroughly un- 
til they reproduce it on paper. The act of writing the 
memorized words seems to clinch the whole thing. 

That there is no imagery that is equally good for 



8 Introduction 

all people is very evident. Whatever sense seems 
best for you is the one for you to utilize and to do 
your repeating in. For most people this will be 
the sense of sight. After the selection is mastered, 
necessarily it must then be spoken aloud and re- 
peated until you are fully capable of reproducing 
it orally. 

. Keep m View the Selection as a Whole 

Commit by ideas, sections and selections and not 
by words, lines and sentences. Strange as it seems, 
very few people do this without being told. The 
natural tendency, even after the thought of the whole 
selection has been mastered, is to memorize by 
sentences. This is bad and there is only one other 
method of memorizing that is more inefficient, 
namely, to commit mere words, — as if to be able 
to repeat the words in the selection were memoriz- 
ing it. The most economical use of time is made 
when you memorize in large sections. Memorize by 
thoughts first, not words. After the ideas are your 
own, the words will come rapidly. In many in- 
stances the selections in this book can be committed 
in their entirety. 

A wise farmer is he who learns not to drive the 
whole way either to or from the field with an empty 
wagon. It is a wise plowman who learns the econ- 
omy of labor and time that results in plowing large 
fields. There is always economy of time in doing 
work in large sections. Piddling is a squanderer 
of time; but that is just what you are doing when 



Introduction 9 

you memorize by lines or sentences. The least that 
ever should be considered is the paragraph or 
stanza. 

Suppose Tennyson's "Song of the Brook" were 
to be memorized. The average person will read the 
first stanza several times and then close his book 
to see if he knows it. If he can repeat the words 
he goes to the second stanza and gets these words. 
Then he repeats the first and second and proceeds 
to the third. He has no trouble with this stanza. In 
the interval, though, what has become of the other 
two stanzas ? Gone ! He will have to look in his 
book to see what they are. Then he couples all 
three, adds the fourth, and attempts to give all 
four; fails, looks in his book, adds the fifth, goes 
back to the beginning and tries to give all again. 
By this time the first stanza and perhaps the second, 
by sheer reason of repetition, can be repeated ver- 
batim. This process of going back to the beginning 
after each stanza is learned, and repeating every- 
thing up to that point, just to see if you know it, 
is continued up to the end of the poem. Pieces may 
be memorized by this method, but the waste of time 
and energy is appalling. It is as if you should be 
plowing a new piece of land and began your work 
each morning, not where you quit the previous night, 
but where you first started. The soil in that part 
of the field would become as friable as soil that had 
been tilled for decades. But there would be a 
gradual gradation from this thoroughly pulverized 
soil to a soil that was very unfriable. Surely this 
is not a desirable condition to have in any field. 



io Introduction 

The memorizing of a selection by this nibble-and- 
repeat method puts your impression of it in the 
same condition as the new land. The first part is 
so familiar that you can say it in your sleep; the 
last part can barely be recalled. Intervening are all 
sorts of snags that turn up in the process of 
delivery. One of the fundamental causes of pupils 
forgetting their selections at the public celebration 
is this faulty process of committing. 

Repetition 

After the selection has been memorized there 
must be much repetition. No one should attempt 
to give in public a selection that he had not repeated 
many times in private. It is only through constant 
repetition that the words finally become yours. The 
ideas, if you are wise, are mastered long before 
you attempt to get the exact words. Always keep 
in mind that it is the ideas, and not the mere words, 
which you are to impress first upon your own mind, 
and finally upon the minds of your hearers. But 
words are the medium for expressing the ideas, 
and in your efforts to get the exact words of the 
authors, there is nothing more important than 
repetition, 

ENUNCIATION 

Although words, as we have just seen, are only 
signs of ideas, yet the words as such must be pro- 
nounced correctly and clearly. Otherwise you will 
not be understood. In preparing a selection for 



Introduction II 

delivery, therefore, attention must be given to cor- 
rectness and clearness in utterance. Enunciation 
includes (i) pronunciation, or correctness as to 
vowel sounds and accent, and (2) articulation, or 
distinctness in bringing out the consonants and in 
separating the words. 

As to pronunciation, be sure that you know the 
correct sound for each word in your speech. In 
case of the slightest doubt, consult the dictionary. 
Don't guess at pronunciations, or be content to 
repeat wrong sounds that you have heard others 
give. Remember that pronunciation is simply the 
practice of the best speakers of our language, and 
you should not be content with anything short of 
the best. 

The need of a clear-cut articulation is apparent, 
yet in actual practice indistinctness is a very com- 
mon fault. For the purpose of making yourself 
heard, distinctness is far more important than mere 
loudness. And the speaker should remember this: 
that some slight indistinctness in ordinary conver- 
sation becomes absolutely inaudible to an audience. 
That is, the public speaker must exaggerate the 
articulation of his words in order to have the dis- 
tinct sounds reach his hearers. So do not mumble 
or "mouth" your words, or run them in together, 
but enunciate correctly and clearly the different 
sounds in each word and separate the words dis- 
tinctly. As we have said, this is a fundamental 
requirement. Having mastered the art of enuncia- 
tion, you are then ready to apply other elements of 
effective speaking. 



1 



12 Introduction 



DOMINANT KEY IN SPEAKING 

Key is the predominating pitch or tone in which 
one speaks. This might be differentiated from 
other tones that he can use by calling this one his 
major key and the others his minor keys. If a 
piece of music, in which minor chords predominate, 
be played before an average audience, most people 
will say that it is good, they suppose, but that it 
is too deep for them. Some few who are more 
daring than the rest will intimate that the instru- 
ment is out of tune. But if the piece that is 
being played be written B flat major, a minor chord 
is struck and held for a measure, behold the 
crowd then. Note the applause at the conclusion 
of the piece ! A selection that was being calmly 
enjoyed by all suddenly became the C major of 
the whole performance. Why? Because that one 
minor chord came at the psychological moment, 
when the whole audience was being soothed and 
lulled by tones musical to the untrained ear. It 
was like the sound of a siren on Broadway. But 
what was the effect when minor chords were pre- 
dominant? You already have the answer. What 
will be the outcome of a declamation that is de- 
livered in a man's minor key? The answer is 
self-evident. One thing is certain: you will not 
take first place in the contest. You can't use 
minors and expect major results. 

The average key. The compass of the voice is 
the range between its highest and lowest limits. 



Introduction 13 

The range of the average man's voice is a little 
more than an octave. Somewhere about the middle 
of this range is found the dominant or average 
key. It must not be thought that the habitual tone of 
the voice is the natural tone. Indeed, many people 
speak either too high or too low. Both are bad 
and must be remedied if much public speaking is 
done. 

Ease, variety, and strength depend on using the 
average pitch of the voice. You then have tones 
above and below, which you can sound when nec- 
essary. Do not assume that you ought to speak 
in a bass voice because some orator that you may 
have heard used" heavy low tones. Physiological 
conditions may have determined that your key is 
to be found on the tenor clef. If you use low 
tones then, your voice will be strained and lack 
power. Most of the world's great orators have 
had baritone voices, voices that are neither high nor 
low. They represent the average or middle register 
of the human gamut and are the tones that are 
most pleasing in the human voice. The average 
key must not be considered as literally the exact 
mean between the two extremes. This is a mono- 
tone and its continued use will damn your speak- 
ing. It means this tone, and the easy flexible vari- 
ations, though slight, that accompany it in speaking. 
No instrument, least of all the voice, can be played 
in a single key. There must be variety. Variation 
is restful to both speaker and hearer. It is 
pleasure-giving. Those whom you would influence 
you must first please, and those whom you would 



14 Introduction 

please you must not madden with a monotonous 
delivery. 

Adaptation of the voice to the room. Every 
room has a key of its own ; that is, has power of 
augmenting some sounds and confusing others, 
dependent upon the size of the room and its 
acoustic properties generally. The experienced 
speaker learns to detect and to adopt his key to the 
particular auditorium in which he speaks. He has 
plenty of time to do this too, for his speech is 
generally an hour long and the first five minutes 
may be taken to get his correct bearings. For 
the declaimer who has only five or ten minutes, the 
problem is altogether different. If possible, he 
should rehearse his selection, at least once, in the 
room in which it is to be given. When this can- 
not be done, he will have to gauge his key and 
volume by his experience in other rooms and then 
listen and look for the effect. If you see people 
in the back of the room turning one ear to you 
and wrinkling their faces, speak louder; if you hear 
your words strike glancing blows on the walls of the 
room, speak more slowly and with less volume; if 
you hear your voice growing thinner as it goes out 
over the audience, and notice some people raise 
their eyebrows, use a lower tone. Especially avoid, 
when speaking to a large crowd, the high con- 
strained pitch. This soon becomes painful to the 
hearers and the speaker. Be sure to start on your 
natural key; even a lower key is not objectionable. 
It is much easier to go up than to come down. 
Besides, it takes five or ten minutes to discover 



Introduction 



15 



that you are speaking too high and by that time 
your declamation will have been finished. 



EMPHASIS 

Emphasis is closely interwoven with the other 
essentials of public speaking. It is the 'art of 
giving to each word its due importance, and con- 
sists of any means that the speaker may employ 
whereby particular attention is called to words of 
special significance. This may be done by speak- 
ing the words louder or softer, higher or lower, 
pausing before or after, or both, lengthening the 
sound, increasing or decreasing the movement, 
changing the quality of the voice, in short any 
variation of any kind that will attract attention. 
The fundamental, the basic idea underlying all 
emphasis is variation. It must be different from 
the ordinary, the common run. A white woman 
walking up the street with a white man causes 
only a casual glance from the passers-by. But 
a white woman walking up the street with a black 
man attracts attention. It is exceptional. It is 
variation. It is to the work-a-day world just what 
emphasis is to the common delivery of a declama- 
tion. 

Basis of good emphasis. Like all other elements 
of expression, this matter of emphasis is the 
double work of mind and voice. You cannot em- 
phasize a word unless the mind first perceives its 
importance for the purpose of the thought-expres- 
sion. The primary requisite, then, is a vivid, vigor- 




1 6 Introduction 

ous mental concept; the rest is to have the voice 
give expression to that concept. 

Stress. The most common method of emphasiz- 
ing a word is by a relatively strong accent or 
stress. The Century dictionary defines "emphasis" 
as "a special stress of the voice given to the ut- 
terance of a word." If this were all there is to 
emphasis, the person who thunders out all-im- 
portant words would be a good speaker. Em- 
phasis is more than mere accent. It is uncovering 
the idea most effectively. If by stress you accom- 
plish this, then you emphasize well. But stress 
and stress alone will not suffice. 

"That voice all modes of passion can express 
Which marks the proper word with proper stress; 
But none emphatic can that speaker call 
Who lays an equal emphasis on all." 

Very often the most effective way to emphasize is 
to speak an important idea in a greatly reduced 
tone, particularly after you have been emphasizing 
by the stress. The contrast will get results. Vari- 
ation, the bed-rock principle of emphasis, will 
have been introduced. 

Pitch. Pitch is the relative position of a vocal 
tone. It is here used as synonymous with inflec- 
tion. The general rule is, that when the thought 
is incomplete at a given pause, the voice should 
rise; and when the thought is complete, the voice 
should fall in pitch. But aside from this general 
rule, the inflections of the voice, in natural and 
effective speaking, are infinite. It is natural in 
conversation and in public speaking to change the 






Introduction 17 

pitch of successive syllables, words, or word 
groups. Listen to the voice of a child as it talks. 
The tones run up and down the range of the voice 
in perfect harmony with the change of thought. 
Then listen to the same child reading its lesson. 
What do you hear? The dull, lifeless, monotonous 
repetition of the artificial sounds that he acquired 
from the one who first taught him to read. The 
change of pitch which becomes a stumbling block 
for the child reader is the same offender in giving 
declamations. When you converse in the family 
circle, you speak pleasantly; when you converse in 
an auditorium you speak wretchedly. 

Pause. One of the most forceful and effective 
methods of bringing out the idea is by the use of 
the pause. In conversation one naturally makes 
a pause before saying something important, and 
then waits for it to "to soak in." The same 
principle must be carried into your declamation 
work. Without practice the declaimer is prone to 
forget all about the natural way a person might 
emphasize the ideas of the selection. Notice 
how effectively the pause is used in the following 
sentences : 

(a) A thing of beauty — is a joy forever. 

(b) Man — dies; the nation — lives. 

(c) The one rule for attaining perfection in any 
art is — practice. 

(d) In this — God's world — dost thou think there 
is no justice? 

(e) To speak distinctly — is to speak well. 



1 8 Introduction 

(f) The days of pompous eloquence — are gone 
by. 

Time. To take approximately the same time in 
speaking each word, whether important or unim- 
portant, is to show an utter lack of discrimination. 
More time should be taken to utter the words that 
carry the principal idea ; expand — dwell upon — 
the important words. Read Lincoln's Gettys- 
burg Speech and note how the element of time 
enters into the proper development of the ideas. 

Movement. The rate of speed with which a 
series of words or sentences is uttered is move- 
ment; while time is the relative prolongation of 
a single word. The rate of movement of a selec- 
tion depends upon the sentiment to be expressed. 
If lively, excited, joyous, or impulsive, it should 
be rapid; if sad, solemn, important or ponderous, 
it should be slow; if natural poise or state of 
mind be undisturbed, a moderate rate of movement 
will be appropriate. The larger the auditorium 
the slower the movement, of course. The numer- 
ous handicaps that one finds in a large room must 
be taken into account. 

Quality of the voice. The character or quality 
of the tones, the purity or impurity of the voice, 
cannot be overestimated. "A good voice has a 
charm in speech as in song; oftentimes of itself 
enchains attention." A clear, resonant, musical 
voice is surely an enviable possession. If you hare 
not such a voice, it behooves you to take steps to- 
ward making it such. Will to have a stronger, more 



Introduction 19 

manageable and pleasing voice, and you will have 
gone a long way toward acquiring such a voice. 
Then supplement your act of the will by systematic 
practice of some simple directions that are given 
in standard texts on public speaking for overcom- 
ing faults of voice. 

The quality of tone used indicates the condition 
Of mind and body. In all declamation work the 
spirit of the selection should engulf you completely. 
Then there should be little difficulty in getting the 
proper quality of voice. 

Rules of emphasis. The paramount rule to be 
observed in emphasis is : Read or speak as you 
would talk. Unfortunately, this rule is only occa- 
sionally observed. The following rules may be 
helpful in correcting common faults : 

1. The key- word of a sentence should be dis- 
covered and emphasized. 

2. Subordinate the modifying or qualifying 
words, phrases or clauses. 

3. Ideas compared or contrasted should be em- 
phasized. 

4. Words once emphasized should not be em- 
phasized again unless repeated for the purpose of 
emphasis. 

5. In a repetition of words, phrases, or clauses, 
in similar construction, seek variety in emphasis. 

6. Distinguish between emphasis of a single 
word and that which should be distributed to the 
whole of a phrase or clause. That is, avoid the 
sing-song or "orational" style. 



1 



20 Introduction 

PHYSICAL EXPRESSION 

Thus far we have been treating of the voice as 
a medium of expression, but one also speaks with 
the body. If this were not so, a speaker might 
just as well address his audience from behind a 
screen. In describing O'ConnelPs eloquence the 
poet says that "his pure and eloquent blood spoke 
in his cheek, and so distinctly wrought that one 
might almost say his body thought." 

Every declaimer, every speaker, must always re- 
member that he is speaking from the time he rises 
from his seat until he has again returned to it. His 
approach to the audience, his position before the 
audience, his attitude toward the audience, his fa- 
cial expression, his gestures, his physical earnest- 
ness, all have a very important bearing on his 
effectiveness as a speaker. 

Approach to Audience 

When a boy is introduced by the presiding officer, 
he should rise promptly, address the chairman, 
walk firmly toward the front of the stage, ad- 
dress his audience, and begin his selection. All 
the time that is required should be taken, but not 
more than is required. A hurried, quick, jerky 
beginning indicates nervousness. A slow, loose- 
jointed, slouchy beginning indicates laziness and 
uncertainty, and has a most unfortunate effect on 
the crowd. Walk as if you were not afraid; but 
do not walk as if you were cock-sure of yourself, 



Introduction 21 

daring the whole crowd to meet you. A swagger- 
ing, undignified, spiritless carriage shows that the 
boy has not keyed himself up to the business in 
hand. Above all, keep your mind on what you 
are doing, not on what you are going to do, and 
do not let any side attraction carry your thoughts 
away. 

Position before Audience 



There is no position before the audience that 
can be assumed with military precision. In train- 
ing a company of soldiers, it is very easy for the 
captain to say to his men, "Heels together, heads 
up, eyes front," and have every man take the posi- 
tion commanded. If in your declamation work 
you affect what is considered by the great public 
speakers a correct position, you are more than 
likely to have a stiff, awkward, mechanical pose. 
No suggestions concerning the proper pose of a 
speaker should be interpreted literally. Season the 
directions that follow with your own discretion 
and they will serve you well. 

In general your position should be such that 
your weight will rest slightly on one foot, with 
the other foot a little in front. The distance 
apart your feet should be, depends directly on 
your size. If you are of the "Slim Jim" type, 
then a wide base will be altogether ridiculous. If 
you have a Falstaffian figure, a wide base is neces- 
sary. Use your own common sense, and try to 
stand in an easy, natural poise. Face the audience 



1 



22 Introduction 

squarely. Don't move too much, and don't hold 
the same position too long. Let your stage walk- 
ing occur when nothing very important is being 
said, or between paragraphs of your declamation. 
Move about gracefully, never stealthily. Work 
your way toward the front of the stage diagonally, 
rarely straightforward., Do not rise on your toes 
or heels. Do not hold your arms stiff or bent, or 
your elbows akimbo. Generally you should begin 
your declamation with your arms hanging easily 
by the side of your body. Never put your hands 
in your pockets or clench your fists or make your 
fingers rigid. These things indicate nervousness 
and lack of mental and physical control. You must 
not think of your arms and legs. All that think- 
ing should have been done long before you ever get 
to the final contest. It is too late then to think 
seriously about your physical appearance. By that 
time, if you have not solved the problem of your 
physical bearing, you are in a "parlous state" in- 
deed. 

Attitude toward Audience 



A boy's attitude toward the audience determines 
very often the decision of the judges. If he be 
flippant, indifferent, undignified or funny, most 
judges will be antagonized. They will say to them- 
selves that if he has no more respect than that for 
his audience, he does not deserve to win. If he 
wants to make the best impression, he must be sym- 
pathetic, keep his audience in view, and speak to the 
whole crowd. A boy who is spiritless or elocution- 



Introduction 23 

ary, or who flirts with individuals in the audience, 
will lose control of his auditors. Affectation, surli- 
ness, indifference, lack of dignity, all are cardinal 
sins of the public speaker. 

Facial Expression 

'The eyes reveal the soul, the mouth the flesh, the 
chin stands for purpose, the nose means will. But 
over and behind all is the fleeting something we call 
'expression.' This something is not set or fixed ; it 
is fluid as the ether, changeful as the clouds that 
move in mysterious majesty across the surface of 
a summer sky, subtle as the sob of rustling leaves, 
— too faint at times for human ears, — elusive as the 
ripples that play hide and seek over the bosom of 
the placid lake." 

It is that "fleeting Something we call 'expres- 
sion' " in its final analysis which lies at the bottom 
of all public speaking. Your passion, your feelings, 
your emotions, are pictured on your countenance. 
If there are no pictures there, the audience will 
have a slim chance of listening to a reputable decla- 
mation from you. No audience will respond to a 
passive, lifeless, ''skim-milk" expression. Put life 
into your eyes, but do not let them play hide and 
seek with your eyebrows. Do not gaze at the floor, 
or the ceiling, or the walls. Look the audience 
squarely in the face. Don't make faces or twist your 
mouth in fifty different shapes and ways. Many a 
man has been flattered to believe that what he said 
caused the crowd to laugh, when it was just the 



24 



Introduction 



ugly face that he made that caused the laughter. 
Don't bob your head up and down like a jumping- 
jack; neither should you hold it too stiff nor in one 
position all the time. In passing, don't do any- 
thing with your face or head that will attract 
undue attention. If you want to see what your 
face looks like while you are declaiming, practise 
before a mirror. 

Gestures 



Reference is now made to gesture in its nar- 
rower sense, the use of the arms and the hands 
as an aid in emphasizing or suggesting the thought. 
More nonsense has been written about gesture in 
manuals of elocution than about any other one 
thing connected with delivery, and yet the problem 
remains. 

Used sparingly and effectively, gestures are a 
powerful aid to public speaking. Any live speaker 
feels an impulse at times to use his arms and hands 
and the problem is to see that these movements 
work themselves out along graceful and effective 
lines. The first effort of the student usually needs 
to be directed towards limbering up his arms and 
body, avoiding all rigidity, and cultivating the 
passive and elastic state. 

In general, gestures should be made from the 
chest as a center. The impulse should go from the 
speaker out through the upper arm, forearm, wrist, 
and hand to the audience. The arm itself in al- 
most any gesture is slightly curved, more so of 
course in suggestive gestures than in strongly em- 



Introduction 25 

phatic ones. Gestures being a sign language, it 
should precede vocal description. Since the em- 
phatic gesture simply supplements the vocal em- 
phasis, it is given simultaneously with vocal utter- 
ance. For the purpose of the public speaker, as 
distinguished from the actor or the dramatic reader, 
the direct emphatic gesture should chiefly be used. 
Avoid gesturing at the beginning or at the very 
close of a speech. Do not gesture to yourself or 
towards yourself, that is, strike attitudes with your 
hands clasped, or hand on heart, etc. Avoid see- 
saw gestures, that is, beginning a gesture with one 
hand and then bringing in the other or vice versa. 
Don't use too many gestures. This is worse than 
none at all. In fact, certain selections require very 
few or no gestures. But whether gesturing or not, 
don't stick your thumbs and fingers out as if they 
were sticks. Neither should you close them as if 
they were glued to your palms. Finally, do not 
gesture without an impulse to gesture. After all, 
this is the conclusion of the whole matter. At- 
tempting to put on gesture from the outside has 
lost many more declamatory contests than it ever 
won. Taboo the gesture that you cannot feel. If 
you feel like making a gesture, make it. Then 
criticise yourself and get other people to criticise 
you. But don't let gesture be thrust upon you. 
Remember that artificial, mechanical gestures are 
far worse than none at all. 



26 Introduction 

Physical Earnestness 

By physical earnestness is meant having the body 
awake. It is the quality referred to by Webster 
when he speaks of "the high purpose, the firm re- 
solve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, 
beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and 
urging the whole man onward, right onward to his 
object." To be thus urged onward, the whole man 
wide awake, is an element, or an accompaniment, of 
effective speaking. Mental and emotional states, we 
know, react upon the physical, and vice versa. It 
is a contradiction in nature for one to be mentally 
and emotionally awake and physically asleep, yet 
with speakers such is often the case. Remember that 
you must not only be in earnest, but that your 
earnestness must be apparent to your audience. 

STAGE-FRIGHT 

It is quite impossible to diagnose that common 
malady known as stage- fright. Usually it afflicts 
the speaker during the first few seconds, or first 
few minutes, of his speech. Most speakers have 
it, in varying degrees. Preachers tell us, for exam- 
ple, that even after long experience, they never 
begin their weekly sermons without the most intense 
nervousness. Daniel Webster was so nervous in 
his first effort at speaking that he had to take his 
seat without finishing. Gladstone said that he was 
often troubled with self -consciousness in the begin- 
ning of an address. 



Introduction 27 

An amusing feature of this matter is, that young 
speakers are apt to think that they are the only 
ones that become seriously embarrassed. And 
right here is the lesson : trained speakers learn to 
control their embarrassment. It should be remem- 
bered that a nervous tension, if brought under con- 
trol, may prove a help rather than a hindrance to 
the speaker, for it puts a nerve-force into his 
delivery that might otherwise be wanting. How 
attain that control? There is no way but through 
practice in speaking to audiences. Continued prac- 
tice, if it does not eliminate all embarrassment, 
gradually does reduce the earlier terrors. The 
practice should, of course, be directed along right 
lines. Nervousness may be aided much by a feel- 
ing of mental and physical preparedness. Have the 
speech thoroughly in hand long enough beforehand 
to give both mind and body a rest. Students often 
make the mistake of worrying over a speech up 
to the very moment of its delivery. This method is 
suicidal. Even speakers of experience sometimes 
fail to realize how much the success or failure of 
a speech depends upon physical conditions. To 
undergo the severe nervous strain of public speak- 
ing, mind and body should be fresh. The day pre- 
ceding an athletic event the trained contestant either 
rests or exercises very moderately. So, if a speech 
is to be given at night, say, the speaker should 
wholly lay it aside during the afternoon and go for 
a walk or go to sleep — do anything but exhaust 
faculties that will be needed in the evening. 

Control is also effected through the communica- 



28 Introduction 

tive, conversational attitude, as one rises to speak, 
and by an exercise of the will. Again, self-confi- 
dence should be cultivated. Self-fear is quite as 
often a cause of stage-fright as is a fear of the audi- 
ence. Encourage a feeling that you and your 
audience are getting on well together. Self-confi- 
dence is not undue conceit, or "brag, brass, and 
bluster'' ; it is having the courage of one's convic- 
tions. It is that self-reliance which enables one to 
rise to the occasion. It is that confidence which 
leads the speaker to say to himself, "I know what 
I want to say, and I am able to say it." 

STYLE OF DELIVERY 

As to manner of delivery, the one capital rule is : 
Be natural. That is, speak to your audience as you 
would talk to an individual. Of course, in public 
speaking the voice must be given more force and 
carrying power than in ordinary conversation, in 
order to make itself heard and felt by an audience. 
But fundamentally the best style of delivery is 
earnest, heightened conversation; it is "the con- 
versational raised to its highest power"; it is that 
manner of delivery wherein the speaker's in- 
dividuality speaks along with his words. Never 
imitate another's style of delivery. This may be an 
excellent style for another, but never for you. In 
short, "Be natural," and make your delivery simply 
direct, strong talk. 

Finally, as was said at the outset, success in 
public speaking comes from "everlastingly keep- 



Introduction 29 

ing at it." Practice is the main thirty. So practice 
faithfully on the elements of delivery we have been 
considering. Drill in declamation is the best way 
to begin, since this will naturally lead to the higher 
forms of delivery wherein you use your own words 
in extemporaneous speaking and debating. Speak 
to an imaginary audience. Henry Clay used stumps 
and trees to practice on. Do not be afraid of drill- 
ing too much. Students sometimes talk of getting 
"stale" when they do not even enunciate clearly. 
To form better habits of speech is your object, and 
new habits are formed only by conscious attention 
and continued practice. "Trifles make perfection," 
said Michael Angelo of his art, "and perfection is 
no trifle." Then after faithful practice, when the 
occasion for public delivery arrives, put your tech- 
nique in the background, remembering that "the 
highest art is to conceal art." Your previous prac- 
tice in technique will unconsciously repeat itself; 
and in the final effort put in the foreground mental 
and moral earnestness, and send your message home 
to the minds and hearts of your hearers "with all 
the resources of the living man." Then you will 
really speak. 



PART I 

PROSE AND POETICAL SELECTIONS 

For Intermediate and Grammar Grades 



Squandering the Voice 

Henry Ward Beecher 

Thi9 selection is from Beecher's celebrated lecture on Oratory. 
Try to illustrate the thought expressed by voicing the ideas in live, 
clear, musical tones. Be sure to bring out in round, full tones the 
climax contained in the last sentence. No gestures are needed in 
this declamation: let the voice alone do the work of expression. 

How much squandering there is of the voice! 
How little there is of the advantage that may come 
from conversational tones ! How seldom does a man 
dare to acquit himself with pathos and fervor! And 
the men are themselves mechanical and methodical 
in the bad way who are most afraid of the artificial 
training that is given in the schools, and who so 
often show by the fruit of their labor that the want 
of oratory is the want of education. 

How remarkable is the sweetness of voice in the 
mother, in the father, in the household ! The music 
of no chorded instruments brought together is, for 
sweetness, like the music of familiar affection when 
spoken by brother and sister, or by father and 
mother. 

Conversation itself belongs to oratory. How 
many men there are who are weighty in argument, 
who have abundant resources, and who are almost 
boundless in their power at other times and in 
other places, but who, when in company among 
their kind, are exceedingly unapt in their methods. 
Having none of the secret instruments by which the 

33 



34 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

elements of nature may be touched, having no skill 
and no power in this direction, they stand as 
machines before living, sensitive men. A man may 
be a master before an instrument; only the in- 
strument is dead; and he has the living hand; and 
out of that dead instrument what wondrous har- 
mony springs forth at his touch ! And if you can 
electrify an audience by the power of a living man 
on dead things, how much more should that audi- 
ence be electrified when the chords are living and 
the man is alive, and he knows how to touch them 
with divine inspiration! 

The Individual as a Power Plant 

Melville W. Mix 

This is an up-to-date, straight-from-the-shoulder business talk. 
Tell the illustrative story in a perfectly natural manner; then, in 
the application contained in the last paragraph, make your delivery 
simply direct, strong talk. 

Once during the argument in a lawsuit, in which 
Lincoln represented one party, the lawyer on the 
other side was a glib talker but not reckoned as 
deeply profound or much of a thinker. He would 
say anything to a jury which happened to enter 
his head. Lincoln, in his address to the jury, re- 
ferring to this, said : "My friend on the other side 
is all right, or would be all right, were it not for 
the peculiarity I am about to chronicle. His habit 
— of which you have witnessed a very painful 
specimen in his argument to you in this case — of 
reckless assertion and statements without grounds, 
need not be imputed to him as a moral fault, or as 






Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 35 

telling of a moral blemish. He can't help it. For 
reasons which, gentlemen of the jury, you and I 
have not the time to study here, as deplorable as 
they are surprising, the oratory of the gentleman 
completely suspends all action of his mind. The 
moment he begins to talk, his mental operations 
cease. I never knew of but one thing which com- 
pared with my friend in this particular. That was 
a small steamboat. Back in the days when I per- 
formed my part as a keel-boatman, I made the 
acquaintance of a trifling little steamboat which 
used to bustle and puff and wheeze about the 
Sangamon River. It had a five-foot boiler and a 
seven-foot whistle, and every time it whistled it 
stopped." 

There must always be some balance in a steam 
plant; for the blowing of the whistle all the time, 
however much pressure there may be behind it, 
won't get anywhere. And so it is with this won- 
derfully contrived power plant made up of the 
various parts of the human body. If the boiler 
isn't big enough to do the useful work relative 
between our steaming and whistling ability, we 
are sure to fail. If we get physically knocked out, 
we are not on the job at the required time, we 
don't produce the business we should, and we may 
cause a loss to some one else through personal 
deficiency and incapacity that we could control if 
we would realize to what extent we have that 
power within ourselves. You often meet men who 
give you the impression of a runaway power plant 
— bustling, storming around like an engine without 



36 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

a governor, blowing away at every joint, making 
noise like one hundred miles an hour and going 
about ten. Sometimes you wonder if they are not 
running backwards. 

Remember this: You are the engineer of your 
own steam plant; you must direct the forces there 
generated ; you must look out for the losses, for 
the direction thereof into channels and through 
media that produce motion, power, and thus per- 
form good work. As you fail, the boiler inspector 
may appear on the job and condemn you for the 
purpose employed and put you on the slide to the 
junk dealer. Do you want that to happen? Is it 
not strange that in youth, especially, we do not give 
more careful and consistent attention to the con- 
dition of our own power plant? Think about it. 
Don't feed the engine poor fuel. Tighten up oc- 
casionally the loose screws and bolts. Keep the 
machine well oiled. Don't wear it out in "joy 
rides," but give it proper rest as well as proper 
action. In short, let us give due attention to keep- 
ing ourselves physically fit. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 37 

Education and Trade 

Woodrow Wilson 

This is taken from a speech delivered at a banquet of the National 
League of Commission Merchants, New York, January, 1912. Get 
on good terms with your audience by bringing out the humor con- 
tained in the opening of this speech. Do not fail to make a rather 
long but natural pause after giving the limerick. The paragraph 
next to the last is largely argumentative, — an appeal to the intellect, 
— and should be spoken accordingly. The last paragraph is an ap- 
peal to the emotions, and should be delivered in moderate to slow 
rate, with a round, full — "orotund" — tone. 

In facing this audience, there are two reasons 
why I am embarrassed : one is, that there is so 
much to attract the eye, and the other is that it 
distracts the thought. I am reminded by contrast 
of a limerick which runs as follows: 

For beauty I am not a star, 

There are others more handsome by far, 

But my face, I don't mind it, 

For I am behind it, 
It's the people in front that I jar. 

However, I venture to offer some suggestions 
on the subject assigned me, "Business and Politics." 

Do you realize what business life in America 
means? It means the constant readjustment to 
new conditions. And in order to keep our civiliza- 
tion in repair, in order to keep our trade good 
and to keep our industries vigorous, we have got 
to change them every month of our lives. Every- 
thing depends upon some nice process for which 
you have to employ experts, and you must look to 
the scientific schools of the country to enable you 



38 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

to advance a single inch. You have got to hire 
training; you have got to employ knowledge; you 
have got to give salaries to science in order to 
accomplish anything in America; and now you are 
finding, those of you who are manufacturers, that 
you did not even know how to keep your cost 
sheets; that you can not tell what a particular 
division of your business costs you, and whether 
it pays its own expenses or not; that you have not 
yet studied those niceties of readjustment, those 
niceties of management, which mean the difference 
between big or little profits or no profits at all, 
and that from this time on you have to employ 
those brains which devote themselves to the nice- 
ties of detail. 

Do you know who are the leaders of mankind? 
The leaders of mankind are those who lift their 
vision from the dusty road under their feet and 
look forward, and though they are determined to 
keep a firm footing upon the road they neverthe- 
less gladden their eyes with the illuminated distance, 
to those regions which seem to rise and rise, level 
by level, promising happier days for mankind, 
easier lives, more sympathy, more co-operation, 
more perfect mutual understanding, more common 
trust, more enthusiasm, more partisanship of what 
is good, more hatred of what is not good, more 
contempt for shams, more confidence in realities. 
They will redeem us from our errors and our mis- 
takes, will show us that to open our eyes is to 
enlarge our trust, and will convince us that to lead 
men upon a great process of change is to keep 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 39 

open the love in their hearts in order to travel the 
road of perfection which comes only with applying 
ourselves to the things that are better; or, better, 
giving over to forgetfulness the things that are 
wrong. 



The Home and the Republic 

Henry IV. Grady 

This selection, like several others from Grady's speeches, has long 
been a favorite for declaiming. Vivid imagination and sustained 
emotion are necessary for effective delivery. Pause and change 
at the beginning of each paragraph. The scenes and incidents that 
make up the composite picture of the Capitol, on the one hand, and 
the country home, on the other, might be suggested by gestures here 
and there, but for the most part the eyes will be the best medium 
for gesture. See the pictures you are describing, and then your 
hearers will be quite sure to see them also. 

Not long since I made a trip to Washington, 
and as I stood on Capitol Hill my heart beat quick 
as I looked at the towering marble of my country's 
Capitol, and the mist gathered in my eyes as I 
thought of its tremendous significance, and the 
armies, and the Treasury, and the courts, and 
Congress and the President, and all that was 
gathered there. And I felt that the sun in all its 
course could not look down upon a better sight 
than that majestic home of the Republic that had 
taught the world its best lessons in liberty. 

Two days afterwards I went to visit a friend 
in the country, a modest man, with a quiet country 
home. It was just a simple, unpretentious house, 
set about with great big trees, encircled in meadow 
and fields rich with the promise of harvest. The 



40 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

fragrance of pink and hollyhock in the front yard 
was mingled with the aroma of the orchard and 
the garden, and resonant with the cluck of poultry 
and the hum of bees. Inside was quiet, cleanli- 
ness, thrift and comfort. Outside there stood my 
friend — master of his land and master of himself. 
There was his old father, an aged, trembling man, 
happy in the heart and home of his* son. And 
as they started to their home the hands of the 
old man went down on the young man's shoulders, 
laying there the unspeakable blessing of an hon- 
ored and grateful father, and ennobling it with the 
Knighthood of the Fifth commandment. And I 
saw the night come down on that home, falling 
gently as from the wings of an unseen dove, and 
the old man, while a startled bird called from the 
forest, and the trees shrilled with the cricket's cry, 
and the stars were swarming in the sky, got the 
family around him and, taking the old Bible from 
the table, called them to their knees, while he 
closed the record of that simple day by calling 
down God's blessing on that family and that home. 
And while I gazed, the vision of the marble 
Capitol faded. Forgotten were its treasures and 
its majesty, and I said: "O, surely, here in the 
hearts of the people are lodged at last the strength 
and responsibilities of this government, the hope 
and promise of this Republic." 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 41 

Have an Oil Can Always with You 

L. M. Cross 

A purely conversational style is best suited to this selection. 
Give the quoted conversations naturally and in the way each char- 
acter spoke. Be sure to pause long enough at the end of the first 
paragraph to let the audience get the point. 

The other day, so the newspapers reported, an 
express train was speeding along almost as though 
on lightning's wing when all of a sudden the train, 
acting as if it were writhing in a sudden violent 
pain, and with much wrenching and a terrific jar, 
came to a rather violent stop. "What's the 
trouble?" every passenger involuntarily asked. "A 
collision? Run over anybody?" A number of 
people, with the brakeman and conductor in the 
lead, hurried to an exit, and found it was a hot 
box. "What is the cause?" we inquired of the 
conductor. "Too much friction and not enough 
oil," he replied. 

In the passing journey of life, when everything 
seems to be running along smoothly, some thought- 
less word is uttered and it is angrily replied to, 
and there is a sudden, violent stop of that peace- 
ful journey. 

What is the cause? Too much friction. A little 
oil poured at the proper moment would have pre- 
vented the trouble. 

Dr. Parkhurst tells of a workman who was in 
a trolley car one day. As the door opened and 
shut, it squeaked. The workman quickly rose from 
his seat, and taking a little can from his pocket 



42 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

dropped some oil upon the offending spot, saying 
as he sat down : "I always carry an oil can in 
my pocket, for there are so many squeaky things 
in this world where a little oil will help." Dr. 
Parkhurst, commenting, says that love is an anti- 
irritant, and that we can soften many attacks and 
prevent unpleasant and jarring frictions if we will 
only speak the kindly word at the right time. 

Let us all carry little oil cans with us everywhere 
and be quick to apply the remedy to squeaking, 
jarring situations whenever they may arise. 

The Different Kinds of Gossip 

P. W. Horn 

This selection is just a plain, direct, strong talk, and should be 
'Spoken accordingly. Be sure to place the emphasis so you bring 
out the thought, and do not fail to pause and change at the beginning 
of each paragraph, so that each new topic is properly introduced. 

There are several different kinds of gossip, and 
each one may be typified by some member of the 
animal creation. 

First take the goose. The goose gabbles and 
hisses, not because she is malicious, but because she 
has nothing better to do; and because she is a 
goose. 

Next comes the mosquito. The mosquito buzzes 
and bites not because he is vindictive, but because 
he is too small to do anything else. It is for the 
mosquito type of intellect that the newspapers of a 
certain type print gossipy articles about the actress 
or the divorcee, telling the color of the shoes and 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 43 

stockings she wears, the way she has her eggs fried 
for breakfast, or the kind of poodle she prefers. 

Then comes the old hen type of gossip. The hen 
ruffles up her feathers and pecks at anything that 
may come about, not on account of any innate 
bloodthirstiness, but merely because she feels cross, 
and on general principles. 

Next we have the buzzard. He circles around 
any place in which he hopes or imagines there may 
be something rotten, merely because his taste leads 
him to love things that are rotten. 

Last comes the snake. He coils himself out of 
sight in the grass and lies in wait that he may sud- 
denly strike some passer-by and fill his system with 
the poison that is natural in a snake's fang. 

Of course, if one deliberately choose, he has a 
perfect right to act the goose, or to be a mosquito, 
an old hen, a buzzard or a snake. There is no way 
in the world to prevent the goose from gabbling, 
the mosquito from buzzing, or the rest of the ani- 
mals from acting out their nature. 

Still, there are drawbacks. The goose must not 
complain if she is considered a goose. The mos- 
quito must expect to be slapped at, and finally to be 
swatted. The old hen will not find a welcome in 
polite society. The buzzard can never hope to rank 
as a gentleman. The snake must not be surprised 
if sometimes a heel is placed upon his head. 

The next time, when in the course of a gossipy 
conversation, you have gone so far as to say an 
unkind thing about some brother man or some 
sister woman, stop for a moment and classify your 




44 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

remark. Was it the gabble of the goose, the buzz 
of the mosquito, the pecking of an old hen, the 
belching of a buzzard, or the striking of the snake 
in the grass? 

One of these, it is bound to have been. Perhaps 
if you can decide which one, it may help you to 
be more considerate next time. 

The Little Old School of the Home 

Irving Bacheller 

This is an extract from a speech at the annual banquet of the New 
England Society, 191 3. The sly humor running through the first 
half of this declamation should be appreciated and expressed. Next 
to the last paragraph begins the application of the story. Pause at 
this point and express the greater seriousness as you begin "to 
point a moral," and the seriousness should be sustained to the end. 

When I was eight years old I became a candi- 
date for President of the United States. The 
nomination was a genuine surprise, for I had 
made no effort to secure it. As a master of fact 
there were many things that looked better to me ; 
I would have preferred the position of bass drum- 
mer in the band at the county fair, but there were 
those who thought they knew what I wanted better 
than I did. We lived in the land of Silas Wright, 
who spent more time declining honors than did 
other statesmen in trying to get them. His party 
wanted him to run for President, but he wouldn't. 
My father said that all I had to do was to be 
as good and as great as Silas Wright and my elec- 
tion was sure. Governor Wright had been dead 
for twenty years. I soon learned that he was the 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 45 

greatest man that ever died — there is no distinction 
like that. I had no sooner got command of the 
theory and technique of one of his virtues than 
he assumed another. When I had acquired his 
gift of working all day and studying a part of the 
night, they told me that he always spent an hour 
in the garden, pulling weeds before breakfast. I 
began to understand why he was dead and also 
why he was so talented. Everybody was watching 
me and nobody was watching Silas. By and by 
I discovered that there were other candidates for 
President in the neighborhood. The Silas game 
had also been tried on them. We candidates got 
together one day over in Howard's grove and dis- 
cussed the issues. We were sick of the campaign 
— too many weeds in it. We all withdrew and 
ran away from school and spent a joyful after- 
noon at the old swimmin' hole. Next morning I 
came downstairs at breakfast time and found that 
the teacher had been there. I observed a general 
air of depression in the family. 

My father said in a kindly tone: "I thought 
that you intended to be President." 

I told him that I had withdrawn. 

Then he said : "Will you please come with me ?" 

I went. It was a beautiful summer morning, 
as calm as he. A song sparrow tried to hold up 
my heart. A squirrel looked down at me from 
a tree-top as if he had a hole to recommend. I 
followed in silence through the garden walk and 
out under the orchard boughs. Not a word was 
spoken. My father stopped and cut a sprout from 



46 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Thept 

one of the trees and then another and trimmed 
them as he walked. He stopped and whittled, 
looking down thoughtfully. I stood near him. 
After a moment of silence he said: 

"I suppose you know the object of this meeting." 

I admitted that I did. 

Suddenly I heard a boy yelling down in the 
valley. It was the voice of an ex-candidate. In 
a minute he knew that I was with him. After all, 
what did this striving to be angels and Presidents 
amount to? Not one of us was ever elected. 

Such was the little republic of the home when I 
was a boy. It had its chief magistrate, its small 
legislature, its department of justice. It had a 
little school of its own in which men were made. 
Two things were taught in it — loyalty and faith. 
Loyalty to the home and its ideals; faith in one's 
self. We've no more use for that little school. 
Too small ! too much trouble ! we are so busy mak- 
ing money and spending it we can't bother with 
making men. We educate our children by the 
thousand and no longer by the one. It's cheaper. 
Our learning, like our living, is syndicated. 

There are six men who have done all the big 
things accomplished in America since 1S50. They 
are: Commodore Vanderbilt, who gave us the 
railroad system; Abraham Lincoln, our greatest 
statesman; Thomas A. Edison, our greatest in- 
ventor; Horace Greeley, our greatest journalist; 
Samuel L. Clemens, our most original novelist; 
Walt Whitman, our greatest poet. Every one of 
them born in a cabin and mother made — educated 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Than 47 

in the little school of the home and only there — 
never went to college ! I mention this not in dis- 
paragement of the college, but only that the little old 
school of the home shall have its proper credit. 

The Greatest Battle Ever Won 

Wilson Williams 

The combined sentiment and rhythm of poetry are pleasing to the 
ear. Orators are therefore wont to close their speeches with an 
appropriate poetic quotation. Notice how the stanzas quoted at the 
close of this selection re-enforce the theme — self-mastery — and form 
a climax of the whole. Special effort should be made to deliver the 
lines in rather slow rate and strong, round, full tones, at the same 
time not failing to place the emphasis so as to bring out the thought. 

It was not on the bloody fields of Austerlitz 
or Waterloo, where Napoleon won and was van- 
quished ; it was not at Gettysburg where the great- 
est struggle of modern warfare was witnessed ; it 
was in none of the titanic battles in which the 
Russians were overthrown by the Japanese ; it was 
not at Verdun or Lemberg: no, it is not on the 
fields of carnage and strife that the greatest battles 
of human history are fought and won, but it is in 
the depths of the human spirit itself that this 
victory is wrought, for the wisest of men has truly 
affirmed, "Greater is he that ruleth his own spirit 
than he that taketh a city." 

The noblest standard ever erected had em- 
blazoned on it these stirring words, "I conquer 
myself !" Self-mastery is the greatest as well as 
the rarest of virtues. Alexander the Great, whorn, 
his enemies could not check in his renowned con- 
quest of the world, was he not overthrown and 






48 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

conquered by his own appetites and passions, the 
enchantment of the wine cup? Was it not the 
quenchless ambition of Napoleon's spirit that drove 
him to leave Elba's shores and again take up arms 
against a combined Europe? Did it not lead to 
his final overthrow and complete defeat? How 
many more less eminent but truly as human as the 
two great masters of warfare just named, have 
been lured and engulfed forever in their own pas- 
sionate desires and selfish hates? 

What are riches and honors to men who are the 
slaves of their own passions? What the grandeur 
of a throne to him who is dethroned by ambition 
and lust ? 

How long or how well we live "not years but 
actions tell." He lives best and wisest who, while 
ruling his own spirit, overcomes every obstacle in 
the pathway to a noble and worthy success, and 
wins a place in the hearts of his fellows not by 
the conquest of the sword, but by the sweet min- 
istries of love and tender regard. Let the motive- 
power be not mere brute force, not the military 
spirit, but rather the spirit breathed in these lines 
by the poet Henley: 

Out of the night that covers me, 
Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods may be 
For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell touch of circumstance 

I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
Under the bludgeonings of chance 
, My head is bloody, but unbowed. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 49 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 
Looms but the horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 
How charged with punishment the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate : 
I am the captain of my soul. 



The Other Fellow 

William Hawley Smith 

Go rather slowly through the first paragraph, dwelling upon — ■ 
emphasizing — such words as "yourself" and "the Other Fellow," so 
that your hearers will get the point of this talk at the outset. Then 
try to speak what the Other Fellow says just as you imagine he 
would say it in each case. 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says that in 
every one of us there are two persons. First, 
there is yourself, and then there is the Other Fel- 
low ! Now one of these is all the time doing 
things, and the other sits inside and tells what he 
thinks about the performance. Thus, I do so-and- 
so, act so-and-so, seem to the world so-and-so; 
but the Other Fellow sits in judgment on me all 
the time. 

I may tell a lie, and do it so cleverly that the 
people may think that I have done or said a great 
or good thing; and they may shout my praises far 
and wide. But the Other Fellow sits inside, and 
says, "You lie ! you lie ! you're a sneak, and you 
know it!" I tell him to shut up, to hear what the 
people say about me; but he only continues to re- 



50 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

peat over and over again, "You lie ! you lie ! you're 
a sneak, and you know it !" 

Or, again, I may do a really noble deed, but 
perhaps be misunderstood by the public, who may 
persecute me and say all manner of evil against 
me, falsely; but the Other Fellow will sit inside 
and say, "Never mind, old boy! It's all right! 
Stand by !" 

And I would rather hear the "well done" of the 
Other Fellow than the shouts of praise of the 
whole world; while I would a thousand times 
rather that the people should shout and hiss them- 
selves hoarse with rage and envy, than that the 
Other Fellow should sit inside and say, "You lie! 
you lie! you're a sneak, and you know it!" 



"I am an American" 

Elias Liebermann 

This is adapted from a poem in Everybody's Magazine for July, 
1916. Since this selection requires strong feeling and force through- 
out, especial care should be used in pausing and changing the 
delivery — dropping for a moment to the conversational style — at 
the transitional paragraphs when each boy is introduced. 

The Great War in Europe has made a strong 
call for the exercise of American patriotism. And 
why should not Americans be patriotic? If the 
Russian, under a despotic government, thinks that 
the Czar is in very truth divine; if the German 
believes that his Fatherland is of more value than 
life itself ; if the Englishman thrills at the thought 
of the British Empire; if the Irishman knows no 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 51 

country as dear as the Emerald Isle; if the China- 
man pities everybody born outside the Flowery 
Kingdom, and the Japanese give their sole devo- 
tion to the Land of the Rising Sun — shall not we, 
in this land of glorious liberty, have some thought 
and love of country? 

At a meeting of school children in Madison 
Square Garden, New York City, to celebrate the 
Fourth of July, one boy, a descendant of native 
Americans, spoke as follows : 

"I am an American. My father belongs to the 
Sons of the Revolution ; my mother, to the Colonial 
Dames. One of my ancestors pitched tea over- 
board in Boston Harbor; another stood his ground 
with Warren; another hungered with Washington 
at Valley Forge. My forefathers were American 
in the making : they spoke in her council halls ; 
they died on her battle-fields ; they commanded her 
ships; they cleared her forests. Dawns reddened 
and paled. Stanch hearts of mine beat fast at 
each new star in the nation's flag. Keen eyes 
of mine foresaw her greater glory ; the sweep of 
her seas, the plenty of her plains, the man-hives 
in her billion-wired cities. Every drop of blood 
in me holds a heritage of patriotism. I am proud 
of my past. I am an American." 

Then a foreign-born boy arose and said: 

"I am an American. My father was an atom of 
dust, my mother was a straw in the wind, to His 
Serene Majesty. One of my ancestors died in the 
mines of Siberia ; another was crippled for life 
by twenty blows of the knut; another was killed 



52 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

defending his home during the massacres. The 
history of my ancestors is a trail of blood to the 
palace-gate of the Great White Czar. But then 
the dream came — the dream of America. In the 
light of the Liberty torch the atom of dust became 
a man and the straw in the wind became a woman 
for the first time. 'See/ said my father, pointing 
to the flag that fluttered near, 'that flag of stars 
and stripes is yours; it is the emblem of the prom- 
ised land. It means, my son, the hope of humanity. 
Live for it .... die for it!' Under the open 
sky of my new country I swore to do so; and 
every drop of blood in me will keep that vow. I 
am proud of my future. I am an American." 



Importance of Little Things 

Henry Ward Beecher 

For pupils in the third, fourth, or fifth grades this selection is an 
"old favorite." Aim to place the emphasis so as to explain the 
thought, and to speak with moderate rate so that the hearers will get 
the thought as you speak. Say it all in a perfectly natural, con- 
versational manner. 

Little things may be important by what they 
draw after them. I can imagine, in the visions of 
the night, as the old miller sleeps, that a crawfish 
comes to him and threatens him. You know what 
a crawfish is. It is a homely little fresh-water 
lobster that loves water and mud. He threatens 
the miller with disaster, except upon some condi- 
tion granted. The surly old miller laughs to scorn 
the threat of the crawfish. The crawfish departs. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 53 

The miller by and by wakes up and starts his mill, 
and away goes the wheel, making music to his ear. 
The crawfish goes to the dam above. He is not 
much. The river is a thousand times mightier 
than he; and so is the massive dam. But he com- 
mences to bore into the clay. He keeps boring, 
and boring, and boring, till by and by he has made 
a tunnel clear through to the other side of the 
bank. And first one drop comes through; and 
then another; and then another; and each drop 
takes a little dirt with it. Gradually, the hole 
grows larger and larger. This goes on all day 
and all night; and at length the channel is so worn 
that a considerable stream runs through it. And 
at last that stream becomes a freshet, and gains a 
force and impetus such that it carries everything 
with it. And away go the abutments and timbers 
of the dam ; and away goes the miller's mill ; and 
away goes his house upon the bank; and the trees 
and all things are whelmed in the flood. 

Now, which is the stronger, the crawfish or the 
miller and his dam ? The crawfish is a little thing ; 
it was a small hole that he made ; but ah ! it was 
what it led to that determines its importance. It 
will never do to call things little till you see what 
they can do. 



54 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Flag of the Union Forever 

Fitzhugh Lee 

It is a great art to tell well an illustrative story such as is con- 
tained in the first paragraph of this speech. Tell it naturally and in 
a colloquial, off-hand way, not failing to bring out the point at the 
close by dwelling upon the word "lye." Then, after a fairly long 
pause, there is a marked change in the delivery as the second para- 
graph is reached. More seriousness is required, and this should be 
maintained with gradually increasing force to the end. 

You have all heard of "George Washington and 
his little hatchet." The other day I heard a story 
that was a little variation upon the original, and 
I am going to take up your time for a minute by 
repeating it to you. It was to this effect: Mr. 
and Mrs. Washington, the parents of George, 
found on one occasion that their supply of soap 
for the use of the family at Westmoreland had 
been exhausted, and so they decided to make some 
family soap. They made the necessary arrange- 
ments and gave the requisite instructions to the 
family servant. After an hour or so the servant 
returned and reported to them that he could not 
make that soap. "Why not," he was asked; 
"haven't you all the materials?" "Yes," he re- 
plied; "but there is something wrong." The old 
folks proceeded to investigate, and they found they 
had actually got the ashes of the little cherry tree 
that George had cut down with his hatchet, and 
there was no lye in it ! 

Now, I assure you, there is no "lie" in what I 
say to you to-day, and that is, that I thank God 
for the sun of the Union which, once obscured, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 55 

is now again in the full stage of its glory. We 
have had our differences. I do not see, upon read- 
ing history, how they could well have been avoided. 
The sword, at any rate, settled the controversy. 
But that is behind us. We have now a great and 
glorious future in front of us, and it is Virginia's 
duty to do all that she can to promote the honor 
and glory of this country. We fought to the best 
of our ability for four years ; and it would be a 
great mistake to assume that you could bring men 
from their cabins, from their plows, from their 
houses, and from their families to make them fight 
as they fought in that contest unless they were 
fighting for a belief. Those men believed that they 
had the right construction of the Constitution, and 
that a state that voluntarily entered the Union 
could voluntarily withdraw from it. They did not 
fight for Confederate money. It was not worth 
ten cents a yard. They did not fight for Confed- 
erate rations — you would have had to curtail the 
demands of your appetite to make it correspond 
with the size and quality of those rations. They 
fought for what they thought was a proper con- 
struction of the Constitution. They were defeated. 
They acknowledged their defeat. They came back 
to their father's house, and there they are going 
to stay. But if we are to continue prosperous, if 
this country, stretching from the Gulf to the Lakes 
and from ocean to ocean, is to be mindful of its 
own best interests, in the future we will have to 
make concessions and compliances, we will have 
to bear with each other and respect each other's 



56 Winning Declamations-Hozi' to Speak Them 

opinions. Then we will find that that harmony 
will be secured which is as necessary for the wel- 
fare of states as it is for the welfare of individuals. 
If all the people prior to our Civil War had been 
known to each other, or had been thrown together 
in business or social communication, the fact would 
have been recognized at the outset, as it is to- 
day, that there are just as good men in Texas as 
there are in Maine. Human nature is everywhere 
the same; and when intestine strifes occur we will 
doubtless always be able by a conservative, pacific 
course to pass smoothly over the rugged, rocky 
edges, and the old Ship of State will be brought 
into a safe, commodious, Constitutional harbor 
with the flag of the Union flying over her, and 
there it shall remain. 

Houston's Crowning Glory 
M. E. Kleberg 

The story of Sam Houston and the decisive battle of San Jacinto 
is of never-failing interest to students of American history. In study- 
ing the following selection for delivery, note the strong climax at the 
close of the second paragraph. The third paragraph continues the 
narrative, another strong climax being reached when the "command" 
to charge is given. At this point rapid and strong force are re- 
quired, continuing through the sentence ending with "flight." Pause 
at this point and employ slower rate, but with no abatement of force. 

The fate of the Alamo and Goliad hung like 
a deepening shadow over the whole land, and 
filled the heart of every true Texan with inex- 
pressible grief. But it also ripened in his mind 
the unalterable resolution to avenge his murdered 
countrymen and forever rescue his home from 



'inning Declamations-How to Speak Them 57 

Mexican despotism. All eyes were turned to Gen- 
eral Houston, and in him and his little army 
centered the last hope of the Texans. At the time 
of the massacre of the Alamo and Goliad, General 
Houston, with an army of about 350 men, was at 
or near Gonzales, and immediately began his fa- 
mous retreat toward the east. 

As the retreat continued, the country behind 
was abandoned to the merciless foe and the torch 
of the more savage Indian. Their husbands and 
fathers in the army, no one remained at home to 
care for the defenseless women and children, and 
they were forced to desert hearth and home, and 
seek refuge in flight for personal safety. Women 
and their little children, with no other conveyance 
than the backs of Spanish ponies, no roads to 
travel save the paths of the wilderness, and no 
roofs to shelter them at night save the canopy of 
heaven, were the vanguard of the retreating army. 
But privations and perils before which the stoutest 
heart would quail served only to unfold the sub- 
lime courage of true womanhood, and whether 
finding the unknown paths of the wilderness or 
as sentinels over their children in the lonely 
watches of the night, these heroic daughters of 
Texas bore, with unflinching fortitude, the dangers 
and hardships of war, and by their noble example 
rallied those that grew faint-hearted or hopeless 
amid the distress of the hour. 

The retreat continued until the Texas army, in- 
creased to 750 men, reached San Jacinto, closely 
followed by a Mexican force under Santa Anna, 



58 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

1600 strong. The great day contemplated by the 
military plans of General Houston had dawned. 
Clear and bright rises the sun on the morning 
of the memorable 21st of April, 1836. In his 
course he has reached his western decline and his 
beams fall upon the Texas army in full battle 
array. Upon the fortunes of this day hang the 
destinies of an empire, and free government and 
human liberty tremble in the balance. The army of 
the invader rests in confidence behind breastworks, 
heedless of impending fate and unconscious of the 
splendid strategy of the Texan commander, and 
the dauntless courage of his soldiers. Down the 
lines runs the command of General Houston, and 
forward rush his intrepid columns, the battle cry, 
"Remember the Alamo ! Remember Goliad !" ring- 
ing in the air. Amid the boom of cannon and the 
rattle of musketry the enemy's breastworks are 
stormed, and men lock shields in the fearful throes 
of battle. Within twenty minutes the great Mexi- 
can army of operations is annihilated — dead, 
wounded, captured or scattered in flight. The 
meteor of conquest that lured the ambitious dic- 
tator into the border of our land has forever van- 
ished. In its place, at high meridian, blazes and 
sparkles in unrivaled splendor the Lone Star of 
the Republic of Texas, and from hilltop to moun- 
tain summit there rings the gladsome tidings, 
"Liberty and Independence — Texas is free." 



Win )ii>ig Declamations-How to Speak Them 59 

The Liberty Bell 

George Lippard 

Aim particularly to bring out the many and sometimes quick 
changes — or transitions — that occur in this declamation. Each part 
of the story must be plainly indicated as it is reached. Be sure to 
express the climax as the boy shouts "Ring." The paragraph 
following this requires rapid rate and very strong force, and the sub- 
sequent paragraph requires slower rate, but sustained force and 
greater volume. 

It is a cloudless summer day; a clear blue sky 
arches and expands above a quaint edifice, rising 
among the giant trees in the center of a wide city. 
The edifice is built of plain red brick, with heavy 
window frames, and a massive hall door. 

Such is the State House of Philadelphia, in the 
year of our Lord 1776. 

In. yonder wooden steeple, which crowns the sum- 
mit of that red brick State House, stands an old 
man with snow-white hair and sunburnt face. He 
is clad in humble attire, yet his eye gleams, as it is 
fixed on the ponderous outline of the bell suspended 
in the steeple there. By his side, gazing into his 
sunburnt face in wonder, stands a flaxen-haired 
boy with laughing eyes of summer blue. The old 
man ponders for a moment upon the strange 
words written upon the bell, then, gathering the 
boy in his arms, he speaks : "Look here, my 
child. Will you do this old man a kindness ? Then 
hasten down the stairs, and wait in the hall below 
till a man gives you a message for me; when he 
gives you that word, run out into the street and 
shout it up to me. Do you mind?" The boy 



60 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

sprang from the old man's arms, and threaded his 
way down the dark stairs. 

Many minutes passed. The old bell keeper was 
alone. "Ah," groaned the old man, "he has for- 
gotten me." As the word was upon his lips a 
merry ringing laugh was upon his ear. And there, 
among the crowd on the pavement, stood the blue- 
eyed boy, clapping his tiny hands while the breeze 
blew his flaxen hair all about his face, and, swell- 
ing his little chest, he raised himself on tiptoe, and 
shouted the single word, "Ring!" 

Do you see that old man's eye afire? Do you 
see that arm so suddenly bared to the shoulder? 
Do you see that withered hand grasping the iron 
tongue of the bell? That old man is young again. 
His veins are filling with a new life. Backward 
and forward, with sturdy strokes, he swings the 
tongue. The bell peals out; the crowds in the 
street hear it, and burst forth in one long shout. 
Old Delaware hears it, and gives it back on the 
cheers of her thousand sailors. The city hears it, 
and starts up, from desk and workshop, as if an 
earthquake had spoken. 

Yes, as the old man swung that iron tongue, 
the bell spoke to all the world. That sound crossed 
the Atlantic — pierced the dungeons of Europe — 
the workshops of England — the vassal-fields of 
France. That echo spoke to the slave — bade him 
look up from his toil, and know himself a man. 
That echo startled the kings upon their crumbling 
thrones. That echo was the knell of all crafts 
born of the darkness of ages, and baptized in seas 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 61 

of blood. For under that very bell pealing out 
noonday, in that old hall, fifty-six traders, farm- 
ers, and mechanics had assembled to strike off the 
shackles of the world. And that bell that now 
voices the Declaration of Independence still speaks 
out to the world: 

Proclaim Liberty to all the Land and all the 
Inhabitants thereof. God has given the American 
continent to the free. 



Wealth and Aptitude 

Leslie M. Shaw 

This selection, taken from a commencement address delivered by 
a former U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, is just a plain interesting, 
serious talk, lightened by a flavor of humor. Note how the concrete 
illustrations add interest to the reasoning. If the talk is of interest 
to you, speak it so it will also be interesting to your audience. 

Admittedly, the American people are the best 
fed, the best clothed, the best housed, the best edu- 
cated, enjoy more of the comforts and luxuries of 
life and suffer less hardships and privations, than 
any other people on the earth; but it is an even 
guess if they are not also more restless, discon- 
tented, and unhappy. I am disposed to think this 
regrettable state of mind arises not so much from 
a want of appreciation of our individual blessings 
and opportunities as from the trend of modern 
teaching. Not only the stump speaker, the lec- 
turer, and the magazine writer, but a good per- 
cent of college professors and Protestant preachers, 
teach, by inference at least, and some openly, that 
whoever gets or has gotten more than his pro- 



62 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

rata proportion of the wealth of the world has 
done so dishonestly and at the expense of his 
fellows. 

In every field of human endeavor, except the 
acquisition of wealth, we make due allowance for 
aptitude. Since the world was, a good many thou- 
sands have tried to write poetry. Some claim that 
out of all who have tried two have succeeded. 
Some increase that number. All we know is that 
there are none living now, though I heard of a 
man who said he could write as good poetry as 
Shakespeare did, if he had a mind to. His friends 
said he had discovered his handicap. Confiden- 
tially I am going to say to you young people that 
I might have made as much money as John D. 
Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie, if I had had a 
mind to. I have had the opportunity, and I will also 
have to admit' that I have had the desire. If I did 
not fully understand my handicap, I might be angry 
with these gentlemen who had the mind to. 

But there are other elements which enter into 
the equation as much as aptitude. During the 
political campaign in 1896, when all audiences con- 
tained a goodly number of Populists, generally 
discernible by the way they wore their hair and 
beard, a man was speaking at Seattle. After hav- 
ing been interrupted several times by one of these 
woolly fellows, his tormentor again arose and 
squealed out: "How do you account for the un- 
equal distribution of wealth ?" The speaker an- 
swered: "How do you account for the unequal 
distribution of whiskers?" 



Winning D eclamations-H ozv to Speak Them 63 

Lest you shall think this a mere figure, let me 
give an illustration that has come under my own 
observation. I once knew a man who could claim 
no pride of ancestry. He was not over- fortunate 
in his physique, and his environment had been very 
ordinary. At nineteen years of age he was a com- 
mon day laborer, as honorable as anything, but 
perhaps less desirable than some. By the pre- 
mature discharge of a cannon one Fourth of July 
morning he lost his right hand at the wrist and 
his left hand one-half inch in front of the thumb. 
While awaiting recovery he became painfully con- 
scious that he had his life on his hands. He 
started to get an education. He once told me that 
he had threaded his own needle and had sewed on 
his own buttons with a naked thumb of a left 
hand. They called him judge when I knew him. 
He died president of a bank with many millions on 
deposit. God grant, my friends, that it may not 
be necessary to maim or cripple you that you may 
wake up to the possibilities that are yours. 



Savannah's Apple of Courage 

Louis Victor Eytinge 

No "flights of oratory" would be suited to the delivery of this 
declamation. It is just a plain, earnest story of a young man who 
made good. Make your delivery direct, earnest, strong talk, with 
few or no gestures. 

John J. Apple graduated from Georgia Institute 
of Technology in June, 1907, a first honor elec- 
trical engineer. He was big, broad, happy and 



64 Winmng Declamations-How to Speak Them 

handsome, and faced the future with the blithe 
bravery of youth. Two days afterward he was 
sporting in the surf at Savannah — made a dive 
and broke his neck. 

Friends carried the crumpled cripple to the hos- 
pital, where it was found that he was completely 
paralyzed from his neck down. After a time, the 
family took him to New York, and a group of ten 
great medical men shook their heads and gave him 
less than a year to live. Jack smiled when he heard 
their verdict and lustily flashed back, "So you can't 
do anything for me, eh? I'm going to try my 
best to outlive the most of you." That was his 
defiance to fate, and he is winning his fight, for 
five of those Ten Wise Men of Gotham sleep in 
Greenwood this day. 

And Jack — why do you suppose that kind of a 
chap would content himself with invalidism? His 
brain was too active to permit of idleness — some 
niche would have to be created for him, even if 
dug from the hardest of flint. He wanted to be 
self-supporting, to be independent, to serve society 
by giving his quota of what he had to the world's 
activities. He used what he had to get what he 
wanted, and so he became a salesman ; not one who 
might from his invalid couch direct the selling of 
some mail-order novelty, but a real up-and-down 
street life insurance solicitor. 

One advantage was his during the time he was 
studying for his future work, in that his father 
had been a general agent for the company Jack 
joined. Even this prop was soon removed, for 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 65 

the father passed on a month after Jack started — 
grief at his son's condition had broken the father's 
health. Still Jack stuck to the line he had mapped 
out — and this is how he went about it. A low 
wagonette was so built that the invalid chair could 
be lifted in and yet have room to spare. Every 
day a darky driver brings the vehicle to Jack's door 
and tender hands trundle him out. A bright youth 
whom Jack has trained acts as secretary, errand 
boy and general helper. Sometimes the prospective 
customer is hailed from the wagon as he walks 
the sidewalk, more often the young secretary runs 
up to Mr. Busy Man's office, brings him down 
and seats him in the chair beside Jack's bed. Day 
after day, for more than four years has this pro- 
gram been followed and no one has ever heard 
a whine or a whimper out of John J. Apple. 

He is unusually bright, unqualifiedly a success, 
wholly good-natured, and mighty opulent in his 
optimism. He shames the rest of the selling world 
when he gives as his formula for success, "Gaining 
knowledge and coupling it up with concentration 
and persistence." He lives up to the line I found 
in one of his letters, "These three words mean 
more to me than a whole dictionary of others: 
Make friends — smile." 

His home life is as happy as his business work. 
There's a littling printing press set up in one of 
his rooms and the secretary prints Jack's messages 
on business, good will and human helpfulness. If 
you were to see his proud mother kiss her boy 
good-night, you'd have the secret of it all ex- 



66 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

plained. He is simply a good mother's splendid son — 
and his mission in life is to make us all take heart. 
Has the story helped you a little bit? Then pass 
it along to the others who need it. 



A Plea for Prohibition 

Henry W. Grady 

Like most of Grady's speeches, this selection is charged through- 
out with strong feeling. It is therefore all the more necessary 
that every place where any change or variety is possible should be 
utilized to break up a general monotony in delivery. 

The liquor traffic, my friends, is most powerful, 
aggressive, and universal in its attacks. To-night 
it enters a humble home to strike the roses from 
a woman's cheeks, and to-morrow it challenges this 
Republic in the halls of Congress. To-day it 
strikes a crust from the lips of a starving child, 
and to-morrow levies tribute from the government 
itself. There is no cottage in this city humble 
enough to escape it — no palace strong enough to 
shut it out. It defies the law when it cannot coerce 
suffrage. It is flexible to cajole, but merciless 
in victory. It is the mortal enemy of peace and 
order. The despoiler of men, the terror of women, 
the cloud that shadows the face of children, the 
demon that has dug more graves and set more 
souls unshrived to judgment than all the pestilence 
that have wasted life since God sent the plagues 
to Egypt, and all the wars that have been fought 
since Joshua stood beyond Jericho. Oh, my coun- 
trymen, loving God and humanity, do not bring 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 67 

this grand old city again under the dominion of 
that power. It can profit no man by its return. 
It can uplift no industry, revive no interest, remedy 
no wrong. You know that it cannot. It comes to 
destroy, and it shall profit mainly by the ruin of 
your sons or mine. It comes to mislead human 
souls and to crush human hearts under its rumbling 
wheels. It comes to change the wife's love into 
despair, and her pride into shame. It comes to 
still the laughter on the lips of little children. 
It comes to stifle all the music of the home and 
fill it with silence and desolation. It comes to ruin 
your body and mind, to wreck your home, and it 
knows it must measure its prosperity by the swift- 
ness and certainty w T ith which it wrecks this work. 
If you are in doubt about what you should do, 
give us the benefit of the doubt. Give the doubt to 
the churches of this city that stand unbroken in 
this cause. Give the doubt to the prayers that 
ascend nightly for this cause from the women and 
children — prayers uttered so silently that you can- 
not catch their whispered utterance, but so sin- 
cerely that they speed their soft entreaty through 
the singing hosts of heaven into the heart of the 
living God. If you are in doubt as to what your 
duty is, turn for this once to your old mother, 
whose gray hairs shall plead with you as nothing 
else should — remember how she has loved you all 
her life and how her heart yearns for you now. 
Take her old hand in yours, look into her eyes 
fearlessly as you did when you were a barefoot 
boy, and say, "I have run my politics all my life, 




68 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

and to-day I am going to give one vote for you. 
How shall I cast it?" Watch the tears start from 
her shining eyes, feel that lump rising in your 
throat, and tell me if that is not better than your 
so-called "personal liberty." 

Love Your Farm 

This selection is adapted from an editorial in The Progressive 
Farmer, and since used as a declamation in numerous schools. If a 
speaker can eulogize a man or country of which he has only second- 
hand knowledge, the boy reared on the farm can surely speak a 
eulogy on what he knows and loves through direct contact. Sus- 
tained earnestness and enthusiasm will cause your hearers to ap- 
preciate and feel the thoughts and sentiments contained in this 
splendid eulogy of the Farm. 

Every farmer should love his work even as the 
artist loves his work, and every farmer should 
love his farm itself as he would love a favorite 
horse or dog. He should know every rod of the 
ground, should know just what each acre is best 
adapted to, should feel a joy and pride in having 
every hill and valley look its best, and should be 
as much ashamed to have a field scarred with 
gullies as he would be to have a beautiful colt 
marked with lashes; as much ashamed to have a 
piece of ground worn out from ill-treatment as to 
have a horse gaunt and bony from neglect; as 
much hurt at seeing his acres sick from wretched 
management as he would be at seeing his cows 
half starving from the same cause. 

Love your ground — that piece of God's creation 
which you hold in fee simple. Fatten its poorer 
parts as carefully as you would nurture an ailing 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 69 

collie. Heal the washed, torn places in the hillside 
as you would the barb-scars on your pony. Feed 
with legumes and soiling crops and fertilizers the 
galled and barren patch that needs special atten- 
tion; nurse it back to life and beauty and fruitful- 
ness. Make a meadow of the bottom that is in- 
clined to wash; watch it and care for it until the 
kindly root-masses heal every gaping wound, and 
in one unbroken surface the "tides of grass break 
into foam of flowers" upon the outer edges. Don't 
forget even the forest lands. See that every acre 
of woodland has trees enough on it to make it 
profitable: "a good stand" of the timber crop as 
well as of every other crop. Have an eye to the 
beautiful in laying off the cleared fields — a tree 
here and there, but no wretched beggar's coat min- 
gling of little patches and little rents: rather broad 
fields fully tended and of as nearly uniform 
fertility as possible, making of your growing crops, 
as it were, each a beautiful garment, whole and 
unbroken, to clothe the fruitful acres which God 
has given you to keep and tend even as He gave 
the First Garden into the keeping of our first 
parents. 

Love your farm. If you cannot be proud of 
it now, begin to-day to make it a thing you can 
be proud of. Much dignity has come to you in 
that you are owner and care-keeper for a part of 
God's footstool: show yourself worthy of that dig- 
nity. Watch earnestly over every acre. Let no 
day go by that you do not add something of come- 
liness and potential fertility to its fields. And 



70 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

finally, leave some spot beneath the shade of some 
giant tree where at last, "like as a shock of corn 
cometh in his season," you can lay down your 
weary body, leaving the world a little better for 
your having lived in it, and earning the approval 
from the Great Father (who made the care of 
fields and gardens the first task given man) : "Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant: enter into 
the joy of thy Lord." 

Pumpkin Pie 

This is an extract from an article in the Independent, December 
4, 1 9 14. A eulogy on pumpkin pie! One might think this no fit 
subject for a eulogy, but if you speak this naturally — talk it — and 
at the same time with earnestness and enthusiasm, you will find a 
responsive chord in almost any audience. 

There are some things in Nature just right, if 
in the right spot; and one of these is pumpkin pie. 
You should know all about the pumpkin just as 
much as you should be well acquainted with Indian 
corn. They have grown together so long that one 
of them alone seems lonesome; but when the corn 
is all cut, and the stocks are crispy in the wind, and 
farmer boys are sitting around them to strip the 
golden ears, what would one do without pumpkins 
to sit on? It is the pie, however, that we are after, 
and how in the world can such a delicious affair be 
made out of a gourd? — for the pumpkin is nothing 
in the world but a gourd — glorified. Every sort of 
plant has a special fitness above all others. It is 
so with folks also ; and as for companionship, what 
could be finer than this of our two gifts from the 
Indians ? 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them Ji 

But you must find the right woman to mix and 
cook it — that is, the pie. It is like ginger cookies; 
not too much ginger; not too little! and the same 
with the sugar ; and after that if you stir the mix- 
ture just once too many times you spoil the cookies. 
Nobody can tell why, only it is so. But the pump- 
kin pie must have a bracing charge of ginger, and 
sugar enough to be really sweet in the raw ; and 
as for milk ! our word for it, don't try condensed 
milk; and one more thing, don't try making just 
one pie. We have never known stinginess to work 
well with pumpkins. 

After the pies are baked, set them in a row, 
always on the second shelf in the pantry, and let 
them ripen. Nothing is perfect when green, least 
of all a pumpkin pie. They are best on the second 
day, and not much different on the third, and are 
still good on the fourth; only let one pie, as soon 
as out of the oven, be set on a big, broad shelf by 
the window, and on it a suggestive knife, of silver, 
and ask no questions. If it is not there on the 
morrow, why those on the second shelf remain; 
and is not gratitude from a whole family as good 
as a pumpkin pie, any time? 

We have heard a good deal of growling about 
the world, from time to time, and from folk who 
ought to know better; yet it is no wonder when all 
the domestic arts are lost arts, and when there is 
no Wendell Phillips left to rehearse their golden 
days. But all this is nonsense, when one may 
easily have a big cornfield, with the corn all husked 
and in the bin, and yet the field covered with two 



72 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

thousand pumpkins, the color of red gold, and 
every one of them crying out Take me, take me! 
Enough ? Yes, it is one of the few things of which 
Nature creates a surplus; enough to use up four 
quarts of Jersey milk, although it is the pumpkin 
itself that has made the Jersey milk so golden; 
enough also for boys to make jack-o-lanterns on 
Halloween; enough more for seats when the husk- 
ing bees gather the farmers ; and then enough for 
pies for every day as long as the snow quilts lie 
on the meadows, and enough for the uncles and 
aunts in town. 

The Child of the Alamo 

Guy M. Bryan 

Note that the first paragraph is merely introductory. Give this 
in a conversational manner, so your hearers will know what you are 
talking about. Beginning the second paragraph the rate should be 
slower, with lower key and increased force, which should be main* 
tained to the end. 

In the session of the Texas Legislature of 1852 
a bill was introduced for an appropriation of money 
to care for and educate the child of Lieutenant 
Dickinson, who fell in the Alamo. Several mem- 
bers spoke in opposition to the bill, claiming that 
as Texas was deep in debt no public money should 
be appropriated to private parties. There was a 
rule of the House that when the ayes and noes 
were called a member, before voting, could give 
reasons for his vote. When the name of Hon. 
Guy M. Bryan was called, he spoke as follows : 

"I intended, Mr. Speaker, to remain silent on 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them j$ 

this occasion, but silence now would be a reproach, 
when to speak is a duty. No one has raised a 
voice in behalf of this orphan child — several have 
spoken against her claim. I rise, sir, an advocate 
of no common cause. Liberty was its foundation — 
heroism and martyrdom have consecrated it. I 
speak for the Orphan Child of the Alamo! No 
orphan children of fallen patriots can send a simi- 
lar petition to this House — none other can say, I 
am the Child of the Alamo! 

"Well do I remember the consternation that 
spread throughout the land when the sad tidings 
reached our ears that the Alamo had fallen ! It 
was here that a gallant few, 'the bravest of the 
brave/ threw themselves between the enemy and 
the settlements, determined 'never to surrender nor 
retreat/ They redeemed their pledge to Texas 
with the forfeit of their lives — they fell, the chosen 
sacrifice to Texas freedom. Texas, unapprised of 
the approach of the invader, was sleeping in fan- 
cied security, when the Attila of the South was 
near. Infuriated by the resistance of Travis and 
his noble band, he halted his whole army beneath 
the wall and rolled wave after wave of his numer- 
ous host against those stern battlements of free- 
dom. In vain he strove: the flag of Liberty, the 
flag of 1824, still streamed out upon the breeze, and 
floated proudly from the outer wall; maddened, he 
pitched his tents and reared his batteries, and 
finally stormed and took a black and ruined mass — 
the blood-stained walls of the Alamo — the noble, 
the martyred spirits of every one of its defenders 




74 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

had already taken their flight to another fortress 
not made with hands. 

"This detention of the enemy enabled Texas to 
recuperate her energies, to prepare for that struggle 
in which freedom was the prize, and slavery the 
forfeit. It enabled her to assemble upon the Col- 
orado that gallant band which eventually tri- 
umphed upon the plains of San Jacinto, and rolled 
back the tide of war upon the ruthless invader. 

"But for this stand at the Alamo, Texas would 
have been desolated to the banks of the Sabine. 
Then, sir, in view of these facts, I ask of this 
House to vote the pittance prayed for. To whom? 
To the only living Texas witness (save her mother) 
of the awful tragedy — 'the bloodiest picture in the 
book of time,' and the bravest act that ever swelled 
the annals of any country. 

"Grant this boon ! She claims it as a christened 
child of the Alamo, baptized in the blood of a 
Travis, a Bowie, a Crockett, and a Bonham! 

"It would be a shame to Texas to turn her away. 
Give her what she asks, in order that she may be 
educated and become a worthy child of the State, 
and take that position in society to which she is 
entitled by the illustrious name of her martyred 
father — made illustrious because he fell in the 
Alamo." 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 75 

Nothing to do but Work 

The Caxton Magazine 

Here is another straight-from-the-shoulder talk, in modern style. 
Speak it accordingly. Let the style of delivery be simply direct, 
-arnest, strong talk. 

There are times when it seems as though life 
was just one prosaic thing after another. Nothing 
appears to be worth while, and we don't just see 
what more we can do to hasten things along. At 
such times we chant with Ben King: "Nothing 
to do but work, nothing — ," et cetera. When we 
have allowed ourselves to drift into this state of 
mind, we shirk the work at hand, and thus make 
things even more disagreeable both for ourselves 
and others. 

Man must work — that is inevitable. If he goes 
at it with the spirit of "Nothing to do but work," 
he will never be able to choose his task. He may 
work grudgingly or he may work gratefully; but 
work he must. When we are in doubt, the best 
solution is to push harder than ever. No proposi- 
tion can succeed without the concentrated push that 
knows no let up. The steady driving along one 
line, at one goal, cannot help but break down all 
obstacles. What most of us lack is the patience to 
pull us through the lull and lag. Many a man loses 
years of momentum by a change at a time when 
things looked doubtful to him. 

There is no work so prosaic that we cannot get 
some pleasure out of it, if we will only find out 
the best way of doing it. The man who pities him- 



j6 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

self because he has to work, and shirks from grap- 
pling the waiting task, is in for a hard time in 
accomplishing anything or becoming anybody worth 
while. Some men are ground down on the grind- 
stone of life, while others get polished up. Every 
man does one thing or the other, he either takes 
on a polish or he wears away — it all depends on 
the stuff he is made of. In his "Sum of Life," 
Ben King ends with: 

"Nothing to strike but a gait — 
Everything moves that goes ; 
Nothing at all but common sense 
Can ever withstand our woes." 

If there is one man who can be proud of him- 
self, it is he who applied for a "job" with the 
company, who without introduction or influence, 
without "pull" or favor has worked his way to a 
position of responsibility. If there is one man who 
should keep his pride in his pocket, it is he who 
holds his position because his uncle, or his cousin 
or his aunt has a "drag" with the controlling in- 
terests. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them yy 

Love and Loyalty of the Negro 
Henry W . Grady 

This eulogy of the negro of slavery times requires a sympathetic 
appreciation of that period in American history. This declamation 
is strongly emotional, and should be studied with a view of ap- 
preciating and expressing the peculiar emotion that dominates the 
different paragraphs. The second paragraph, for example, requires 
a slower rate and a different tone from that required for the first 
part of the third paragraph. That is, aim to use the appropriate 
"tone-color" for each picture presented. 

The love the people of the South feel to the 
negro race cannot be comprehended nor measured 
by the people of the North. As I attest it here, 
the spirit of my old black mammy from her home 
up there looks down to bless; and through the 
tumult of this night steals the sweet music of her 
croonings as in years agone when she held me in 
her black arms and led me smiling in to sleep. 

The scene vanishes as I speak, and I catch a 
vision of an old Southern home with its lofty 
pillars, and its white pigeons fluttering down 
through the golden air. I see women with strained 
and anxious faces, and children alert yet helpless. 
I see night come down with its dangers and ap- 
prehensions, and in a big, homely room I feel on 
my tired head the touch of loving hands — now 
worn and wrinkled, but fairer to me yet than the 
hands of mortal woman, and stronger yet to lead 
me than the hands of mortal man — as they lay a 
mother's blessing there; while at her knees — the 
truest altar I yet have found — I thank God that 
she is in her sanctuary safe because her slaves, 
sentinel in the silent cabin, or guard at her chamber 




78 Winning Declamations-Hozv to Speak Them 

door, put a black man's loyalty between her and 
danger. 

I catch another vision. The crisis of battle — a 
soldier, struck, staggering, fallen. I see a slave 
scuffling through the smoke, winding his black 
arms about the fallen form, reckless of hurtling 
death, bending his trusty face to catch the words 
that tremble on the stricken lips, — so wrestling 
meantime with agony that he would lay down his 
life in his master's stead. I see him by the weary 
bedside, ministering with uncomplaining patience, 
praying with all his humble heart that God will 
lift his master up until death comes in mercy and 
in honor to still the soldier's agony and seal the 
soldier's life. 

I see him by the open grave, mute, motionless, 
uncovered, suffering for the death of him who in 
life fought against his freedom. I see him when 
the mound is heaped and the great drama of that 
life has closed, turn away and with downcast eye 
and uncertain step start out into new and strange 
fields, faltering, struggling, but moving on, until 
his shambling figure is lost in the light of this 
better and brighter day. And from the grave 
comes a voice saying, "Follow him ! Put your 
arms about him in his need, even as he put his 
about me. Be his friend as he was mine !" And 
out into this new world — strange to me as it is to 
him, dazzling, bewildering — I follow. And may 
God forget my people when they forget these! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 79 

New England's Fairest Boast 
S. S. Prentiss 

To "enter into the spirit" of this speech, have and keep in mind 
some country or village school which you know of personally; for 
what is true of a New England school is also true of any public 
school, and the plan suggested will make a concrete application of and 
"visualize" the thought for the more effective expression. 

Behold yon simple building near the crossing of 
the village road. It is small and of rude construc- 
tion, but it stands in a pleasant and quiet spot. A 
magnificent old elm spreads its broad arms above, 
and seems to lean towards it as a strong man bends 
to shelter and protect a child. A brook runs 
through the meadow near, and hard by there is an 
orchard; but the trees have suffered much, for 
there is no fruit except upon the highest and most 
inaccessible branches. From within its walls comes 
a busy hum, such as you may hear in a disturbed 
beehive. Now peep through yonder windows and 
you will see a hundred children with rosy cheeks, 
mischievous eyes and demure faces, all engaged, 
or pretending to be so, in their little lessons. It 
is the public school, the free, the common school, 
provided by law, open to all, claimed from the 
community as a right, not accepted as a bounty. 
Here the children of the rich and poor, high and 
low, meet upon perfect equality, and commence, 
under the same auspices, the race of life. Here 
the sustenance of the mind is served to all alike, 
as the Spartans served their food upon the public 
table. Here young Ambition climbs his little lad- 
der, and boyish Genius plumes his half-fledged 



80 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

wings. From among these laughing children will 
go forth the men who are to control the destinies 
of their age and country; the statesman, whose 
wisdom is to guide the senate; the poet, who will 
take captive the hearts of the people and bind them 
together with immortal song; the philosopher, who 
boldly seizing upon the elements themselves, will 
compel them to his wishes, and through new com- 
binations of their primal laws, by some great dis- 
covery, revolutionize both art and science. 

The common village school is New England's 
fairest boast, the brightest jewel that adorns her 
brow. The principle, that society is bound to pro- 
vide for its members' education, so that none may 
be ignorant except from choice, is the most im- 
portant that belongs to modern philosophy. It is 
essential to a republican government. Universal 
education is not only the best and the surest, but 
the only sure foundation for free institutions. 
True Liberty is the child of Knowledge, she pines 
away and dies in the arms of Ignorance. Honor, 
then, to the early fathers of New England, from 
whom came the spirit which has built a school- 
house by every sparkling fountain, and bids all 
come as freely to the one as the other ! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 81 

The Way to Wealth 

Benjamin Franklin 

The talking or colloquial style is the most fitting for the delivery 
of this selection. It is valuable for memorizing because it will fix 
in mind the famous proverbs and sayings of "Poor Richard." 

I stopped my horse, lately, where a great number 
of people were collected at an auction of merchants' 
goods. The hour of the sale not being come, they 
were conversing on the badness of the times ; and 
one of the company called to a plain, clean old man, 
with white locks: 'Tray, Father Abraham, what 
think you of the times? Will not these heavy 
taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever 
be able to pay them? What would you advise us 
to do?" 

Father Abraham stood up and replied: "If you 
would have my advice, I will give it to you in 
short; for 'a word to the wise is enough/ as poor 
Richard says." They joined in desiring him to 
speak his mind, and, gathering around him, he 
proceeded as follows: "Friends," said he, "the 
taxes are indeed very heavy; and, if those laid on 
by the Government were the only ones we had to 
pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we 
have many others, and much more grievous to some 
of us. 

"We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, 
three times as much by our pride, and four times 
as much by our folly; and of these taxes the com- 
missioners can not ease or deliver us by allowing 
an abatement. However, let us hearken to good 




82 Whining Declamations-How to Speak Them 

advice, and something may be done for us. 
'Heaven helps them that help themselves,' as poor 
Richard says. , 

"It would be thought a hard government that 
should tax its people one-tenth part of their time to 
be employed in its service; but idleness taxes many 
of us much more; sloth, by bringing on diseases, 
absolutely shortens life. 'Sloth, like rust, con- 
sumes faster than labor wears ; while the used key 
is always bright,' as Poor Richard says. How 
much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep! 
forgetting that 'the sleeping fox catches no poultry/ 
and that there will be sleeping enough in the grave. 

" 'Lost time is never found again ; and what we 
call time enough, always proves little enough.' Let 
us, then, be up and doing, and doing to the purpose; 
so by diligence shall we do more with less per- 
plexity. 'Drive thy business, and let not that drive 
thee' ; and 'early to bed, and early to rise, makes a 
man healthy, wealthy and wise,' as Poor Richard 
says. 

"So, what signifies wishing and hoping for better 
times? We may make these times better if we be- 
stir ourselves. 'Industry need not wish, and he that 
lives upon hopes will die fasting.' 'There are no 
gains without pains ; then help hands, for I have no 
lands.' 'He that hath a trade, hath an estate; and 
he that hath a calling, hath an office, hath an office 
of profit and honor'; but then the trade must be 
worked at, and the calling well followed, or neither 
the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our 
taxes. Work while it is called to-day, for you 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 83 

know not how much you may be hindered to-mor- 
row. 'One to-day is worth two to-morrows,' as 
Poor Richard says; and further, 'Never leave that 
till to-morrow which you can do to-day/ " 



>> 



"My Kingdom for a Horse 

John W . Springer 

Make the introduction to the speech really introductory. In 
beginning the speech proper, the conversational style on opening 
should change to the more formal, with somewhat slower rate and 
more force, both rate and force changing with the changing thoughts 
and emotions. 

When Cresceus, the famous trotter, was making 
his tour of the United States, Mr. Springer was 
invited to "introduce" the horse to ten thousand 
people who had assembled at the Overland Park 
grounds. He did it as follows : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a very great 
pleasure to present to you the king of American 
trotters, the matchless Cresceus. He is owned, 
was bred and is driven by a gentleman from the 
Buckeye State, Mr. George H. Ketcham. 

The twentieth century American loves to see the 
best, to own the best of everything. We all pay 
our devotions at the shrine of the noblest animal 
bestowed upon man — the horse. He is typical to- 
day of our advanced civilization. He has kept pace 
with progressive individuality in the equine world. 
He fills his sphere so completely that all the bi- 
cycles, all the automobiles, and all the street cars 
will never drive him into exile. Where men, 



84 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

women and children dwell, there will this noble 
creature ever abide. 

He will journey with us from the cradle to the 
grave. He will caper along with the young folks, 
and bring up at the church door, where wedding 
bells tell of happy hearts and new-made homes. 
He will trot along with carriage loads of happy 
little folks, whose life is a song and whose presence 
is a joy forever. He will set the pace for the 
hounds who are away at the sound of the hunter's 
horn, over hill and vale, over field and meadow, 
always the most enthusiastic of the throng of 
sportsmen. He loves to hear the crack of the 
whip and go bounding away with the coach and 
four, and the jolly crowd whose chief pleasure 
is in coaching parties and outings in the moun- 
tains, and along the rivers. He is with us in 
prosperity and adversity, and that man or woman 
is an attenuated specimen of humanity who does 
not love this matchless animal. No wonder King 
Richard III exclaimed: "A horse! A horse! 
My kingdom for a horse!" 

So it is my friends, the horse is always a part 
of our pleasure, and at last, when the long 
shadows have fallen over us, and our eyes are 
heavy with the last sleep, the horse carefully 
draws our remains to the silent city and all is over. 

In behalf of the management of the Overland 
Racing Association and of the members of the 
Driving and Riding Club of Denver, and on be- 
half of the thousands of enthusiastic citizens of 
Colorado, I bid the king of trotters — the great 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 85 

Cresceus — welcome, thrice welcome, to the track of 
this association. 

One and all, we wish you "good speed." 

Man's Best Friend — His Dog 
George G. Vest 

Following is one of the most famous speeches ever made by the 
late Senator Vest, of Missouri. It was delivered as part of a plea 
to the jury in the trial of a man who had unwantonly shot a dog 
belonging to a neighbor. Note that the last sentence of the first 
paragraph of this speech is a climax, and that the last word is the 
climax of the sentence. After a pause and change upon beginning the 
second paragraph, the remainder of the speech is uniformly strong in 
sentiment and feeling. 

The best friend a man has in this world may 
turn against him and become his enemy. His son 
or daughter that he has reared with loving care 
may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and 
dearest to us, those whom we trust with our hap- 
piness and our good name, may become traitors 
to our faith. The money that a man has he may 
lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he 
needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacri- 
ficed in a moment of ill-considered action. The 
people who are prone to fall to their knees to do 
us honor when success is with us may be the first 
to throw the stone when failure settles its cloud 
upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish 
friend that man can have in this selfish world, the 
one that never deserts him, the one that never 
proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. 

A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in 
poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep 



86 Winning Declamations-How to Speak TheHn 

on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow 
and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be 
near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that 
has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and 
sores that come in encounter with the roughness 
of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper 
master as if he were a prince. When all other 
friends desert, he remains. When riches take 
wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as con- 
stant in his love as the sun in its journey through 
the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth 
an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, 
the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that 
of accompanying him to guard against danger, to 
fight against his enemies, and when the last scene 
of all comes, and death takes the master in its 
embrace and his body is laid away in the cold 
ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their 
way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be 
found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad 
but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true 
even to death. 

The Coyote 

Mark Twain 

The pupil who has become acquainted with the coyote — and none 
other should try to speak this selection — will see how true to life 
the picture is drawn. The sly humor in the piece should not be 
missed either by the speaker or his audience. Study especially the 
closing paragraph to see how much more effective the delivery can 
be made if you observe proper pauses and changes both in rate and 
in tone. 

The coyote of the western prairies and deserts is 
a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton with a 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 87 



gray wolf -skin stretched over it, a tolerably bushy 
tail that forever sags down with a despairing ex- 
pression of forsakenness and misery, a furtive and 
evil eye, and a long, sharp face, with slightly lifted 
lip and exposed teeth. 

He has a general slinking expression all over. 
The coyote is a living, breathing allegory of want. 
He is always hungry, always poor, out of luck, 
and friendless. He is so spiritless and cowardly 
that, even while his exposed teeth are pretending a 
threat, the rest of his face is apologizing for it. 

When he sees you he lifts his lip and lets a 
flash of his teeth out, and then turns a little out of 
the course he was pursuing, depresses his head 
a bit, and strikes a long, soft-footed trot through 
the sagebrush, glancing over his shoulder from 
time to time, till he is about out of easy pistol 
range, then he stops and takes a deliberate survey 
of you. 

But, if you start a swift-footed dog after him, 
you will enjoy it ever so much — especially if it is a 
dog that has a good opinion of himself, and has 
been brought up to think that he knows something 
about speed. The coyote will go swinging gently 
off on that deceitful trot of his, and every little 
while he will smile a fraudful smile over his shoul- 
der that will fill that dog entirely full of encour- 
agement and worldly ambition. 

All this time the dog is only a short twenty feet 
behind the coyote, and, to save the life of him, he 
cannot understand why it is that he cannot get 
perceptibly closer, and he begins to get aggravated. 



88 Winning D eclamations-H ozu to Speak Them 

And next the dog notices that he is getting 
fagged, and that the coyote actually has to slacken 
speed a little, to keep from running away from him. 
And then that town dog is mad in earnest, and 
he begins to strain, and weep, and swear, and paw 
the sand higher than ever, and reach for the coyote 
with concentrated and desperate energy. 

This spurt finds him six feet behind the gliding 
enemy, and two miles from his friends. And then, 
in the instant that a wild new hope is lighting up 
his face, the coyote turns and smiles blandly upon 
him once more, and with a something about it 
which seems to say: 

"Well, I shall have to tear myself away from 
you, — business is business, and it will not do for 
me to be fooling along this way all day." And 
forthwith there is a rushing sound, and the sudden 
splitting of a long crack through the atmosphere; 
and behold, that dog is solitary and alone in the 
midst of a vast solitude ! 

Life Lessons 

George W. Bain 

The happy mixture of the serious and the humorous in this speech 
can be employed both to entertain and to persuade an audience. 
The style speaks, and if you keep in mind the points you wish to 
enforce, not neglecting the humorous illustrations, without any 
strained effort on your part the declamation will speak itself. 

Among the first of moral qualities a young per- 
son needs, is industry. "By the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread" has in it more sweet bread 
than all your luck. On this ancient law the great- 



Winning Declaniations-Hozv to Speak Them 89 

est successes of the world have been based. On 
this, Abraham Lincoln stood splitting rails, and 
wedged himself to the highest office in the gift of 
the Republic ; on this, Shakespeare stood weaving 
wool, and wove for himself a fame immortal ; on 
this James A. Garfield tramped a tow-path with 
no company but an honest mule, but that tow-path 
led on to the White House in Washington. Do 
not be lazy. I saw a man once who really looked 
so lazy it seemed to rest me to look at him. But 
the man or woman who lives in this age of the 
world and lives in idleness should have been born 
in some other age. Carlyle says : "The race of 
life has become intense : the runners are treading on 
each other's heels. Woe be to the man who stoops 
to tie his shoe strings." 

Take care of your principles, and to do this start 
right and keep right. I heard of a traveler who 
said to a wayside farmer, "How far do you call it 
to Philadelphia?" The farmer replied, "About 
twenty-five thousand miles, the way you are going ; 
if you turn and go the other way, it is fourteen 
miles." There is a wonderful difference in the 
ways of life. If you start right and keep right, 
no matter where you start from, you will end 
right. Go find me the poorest boy in this city; 
let him lay his hand on his heart and pledge me 
he will be industrious, honest, economical and 
sober, and in twenty years hence you will find him 
honored and "well to do" in life. Boys, are any 
of you poor? Never mind poverty. The rich 
men of to-day were poor boys thirty years ago. 



90 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Thefm 

The great men come out of cabins as a rule. 
Columbus was a weaver, Hally was a soap-maker, 
Homer was a beggar, and Franklin, whose name 
will live while lightning blazes on a cloud, came 
from a printer's desk. Not long since, I rode 
horseback through Hardin and La Rue Counties, 
Kentucky. We call that the land of ticks and 
lizards. The soil is very poor, so poor that it will 
not raise black-eye peas unless you take them with- 
out the eyes. Riding along that day I came upon 
a spot of rank weeds where the soil had been made 
rich by the decay of an old cabin that once stood 
there. Out of that cabin years ago came a lean, 
lank, white-headed boy. If ever a boy came from 
abject poverty that one did. When only seven 
years of age, he would walk to Hodgenville with 
a basket of eggs to sell. The boys laughed at 
him. They said his clothes were like Joseph's 
because so many colors. But he was industrious, 
honest and sober. After a while he was old 
enough to leave home, so he went down the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers on a flatboat. Then he re- 
turned and crossing over into Indiana — he there 
split rails a while ; then on to Illinois, where he 
practiced law ; then on to the presidential chair, 
and in his death he bore the shackles of four mil- 
lion slaves and linked his name with that of 
Liberty. 

I thank God we live in a land where a boy can 
go from a tow-path, a tanyard, or a rail-cut to the 
presidency of a Republic. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 91 

Scientific Farming 

Irving Bacheller 

This is an extract from a speech delivered at a banquet of the 
New England Society of New York City, 1909. Note and express 
the flavor of humor it contains. Bring out the climax in the last 
paragraph with feeling and force. 

There are some who say that the "higher educa- 
tion" has gone too far, but I want to tell you that 
the up-to-date American farmer is a far-seeing 
man. He has observed the hordes of human oxen 
pouring in from Europe, men w T ho can sleep in a 
pigsty and dine on an onion and a chunk of 
bread, and he has been unwilling to enter his sons 
in that sort of competition ; and so he has sent them 
to college. Scientific farming has begun to pay. I 
know a farmer whose income would excite the 
envy of high finance. He said to me : "Don't be 
afraid of education; the land will soak up all we 
can get and yell for more. ,, 

My friends, if I knew half the secrets in ten 
acres of land I believe I could make my fortune off 
them in five years. We have sent the smart boys 
to the city, and we have kept the fools on the 
farm. We have put everything on the farms but 
brains. Anybody can learn Blackstone and Green- 
leaf, but the book of law that is writ in the soil 
is only for keen eyes. We want our young men 
to know that it is more dignified to search for the 
secrets of God in the land than to grope for the 
secrets of Satan in a law-suit. One hundred thou- 
sand young men will be leaving college within a 



92 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

year from now. If the smartest of them would go 
to work on the land with gangs of these human 
oxen we could make the old earth lop-sided with 
the fruitfulness of America. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the "hayseed" is no more. 
I propose the health of the coming farmer, who is 
to be a gentleman, a scholar, a laird, a baron. I 
propose the health of the many who have taught 
and shall teach him 

"To sow the seed of truth and hope and peace 
And take the root of error from the sod, 
To be of those who make the sure increase 
Forever growing in the lands of God." 

Ambition 

Jerome K. Jerome 

This is an extract from the author's "Idle Thoughts of an Idle 
Fellow." The conversational style is best fitted for the delivery of 
this selection, for the most part. The last paragraph affords an 
opportunity for a change to a more elevated tone, expressive of the 
enthusiasm which comes from the zest of the game. 

Is it, forsooth, wrong to be ambitious? Are the 
men wrong who with bent back and sweating brow 
cut the smooth road over which humanity marches 
forward, who use the talents their Master has in- 
trusted to them for toiling, while others play? 

Of course, they are seeking their own reward. 
Man is not given that Godlike unselfishness that 
thinks only of others' good. But in working for 
themselves they are working for us all. We are 
so bound together that no man can labor for him- 
self alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 93 



helps to mould the universe. The stream in strug- 
gling onward turns the mill wheel ; the coral insect 
fashioning its tiny cells joins continents; and the 
ambitious man building a pedestal for himself 
leaves a monument of posterity. Alexander and 
Csesar fought for their own ends, but in doing so 
they put a belt of civilization half around the 
earth. Stephenson, to win a fortune, invented the 
steam engine, and Shakespeare wrote his plays to 
keep a comfortable home for Mrs. Shakespeare 
and the children. 

Contented, unambitious people are all very well 
in their way. They form a neat, useful back- 
ground for great portraits to be painted against, 
and they make a respectable audience for the 
active spirits to play before. I have not a word to 
say against them so long as they keep quiet. But 
they should not go strutting about, crying out that 
they are the true model for the whole species. 

If you are foolish enough to be contented, don't 
show it, but grumble with the rest; and if you can 
do with a little, ask for a great deal. Because if 
you don't, you won't get anything. In this world 
it is necessary to adopt the principle pursued by 
the plaintiff in an action for damages and to de- 
mand ten times more than you are ready to accept. 
If you can feel satisfied with a hundred, begin by 
insisting on a thousand; if you start by suggesting 
a hundred you will only get ten. 

What a terribly dull affair, too, life must be for 
contented people. They never know the excite- 
ment of expectation nor the stern delight of ac- 



94 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

complished effort, such as stir the pulse of the 
man who has objects and hopes and plans. To 
the ambitious man life is a brilliant game — a game 
that calls forth all his tact and energy and nerve — 
a game to be won, in the long run, by the quick 
eye and the steady hand, and yet having sufficient 
chance about its working out to give it all the zest 
of uncertainty. He exults in it, as the strong 
swimmer in the heavy billows, as the athlete in the 
wrestle, as the soldier in battle. And if he be de- 
feated he wins the grim joy of fighting; if he 
loses the race he at least has had a run. Better 
to work and fail than to sleep one's life away. 

The Victor of Marengo 

Anonymous 

Here is another "old favorite" which has had a record-breaking 
run in declamation service. It is full of dramatic interest and quick 
changes. These two matters demand special attention in delivery: 
(i) Vary the delivery to indicate, smoothly but plainly, the many 
and ofttimes quick changes that occur, and (2) "Mind the pauses" 
between such changes. Carry on the dialogues naturally, making 
each character speak in his proper manner. In denoting conversa- 
tion to an audience, the speaker turns and looks to the right and to 
the left, or vice versa, as each character talks. Remember that the 
gamin was some distance from Napoleon and Desaix. Some sug- 
gestive and descriptive gestures go naturally with this declamation, 
but avoid an over-literal interpretation of figurative language, in 
gesture-expression. And don't try to represent every scene or 
incident by gesture. See the pictures vividly, and very often a 
glance of the eyes in the proper direction is the most effective 
gesture. It is unnecessary to add that parts of this piece, such 
as the reply of the gamin to Napoleon's command, should be given 
with all the fire and force you can muster. 

Napoleon was sitting in his tent. Before him 
lay the map of Italy. He took four pins, stuck 



Winning D eclamations-H ow to Speak Them 95 

them up, measured, moved the pins, and measured 
again. "Now," said he, "that is right. I will 
capture him there." "Who, sire?" said an officer. 
"Melas, the old fox of Austria. He will return 
from Genoa, pass through Turin, and fall back on 
Alexandria. I will cross the Po, meet him on the 
plains of La Servia, and conquer him there." 
And the finger of the child of destiny pointed to 
Marengo. 

Two months later, the memorable campaign of 
1800 began. The 20th of May saw Napoleon on 
the heights of St. Bernard; the 22nd, Lannes, with 
the army of Genoa, held Ivrae. So far all had 
gone well with Napoleon. He had compelled the 
Austrians to take the position he desired, had re- 
duced their army from 120,000 to 40,000 men, 
dispatched Desaix to the right, and on June 14th, 
moved forward to consummate his masterly plan. 

But God thwarted his schemes. In the gorges of 
the Alps a few drops of rain had fallen, and the 
Po could not be crossed in time. Melas, pushed 
to the wall by Lannes, rested to cut his way out; 
and Napoleon reached the field to see Lannes 
beaten, Champeaux dead and Kellerman still 
charging. Old Melas poured his Austrian phalanx 
on Marengo till the Consular Guard gave way, and 
the well-planned victory of Napoleon became a 
terrible defeat. * 

Just as the day was lost, Desaix, the boy general, 
came sweeping across the field at the head of his 
cavalry and halted near the eminence where stood 
Napoleon. In the corps was a drummer boy, a 



96 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

gamin, whom Desaix had picked up in the streets 
of Paris, and who had followed the victorious 
eagles of France in the campaign of Egypt and 
Austria. As the column halted Napoleon shouted 
to him: "Beat a retreat." The boy did not stir. 
"Gamin, beat a retreat !" The boy grasped his 
drumsticks, stepped forward and said: "Oh, sire, 
I don't know how. Desaix never taught me that. 
But I can beat a charge. Oh ! I can beat a charge 
that would make the dead fall in line. I beat that 
charge at the pyramids once, and I beat it at Mount 
Tabor, and I beat it again at the Bridge of Lodi. 
May I beat it here ?" 

Napoleon turned to Desaix: "We are beaten; 
what shall we do ?" "Do ? Beat them ! It is only 
three o'clock; there is time to win a victory yet. 
Up gamin, the charge ! Beat the old charge of 
Mount Tabor and Lodi !" A moment later the 
corps, following the sword gleam of Desaix and 
keeping step to the furious roll of the gamin's 
drum, swept down on the hosts of Austria. They 
drove the first line back on the second, the second 
back on the third, and there they died. Desaix 
fell at the first volley, but the line never faltered. 
As the smoke cleared away, in the front of the 
line was seen the gamin, still beating the furious 
charge, as over the dead and wounded, over the 
breastworks and ditches, over the cannon and rear 
guard, he led the way to victory! And the fifteen 
days in Italy were ended. 

To-day men point to Marengo with wonderment. 
They laud the power and foresight that so skill- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 97 

fully planned the battle; but they forget that 
Napoleon failed, they forget that he was defeated; 
they forget that a general only thirty years old 
made a victory of the Great Conqueror's defeat, 
and that a gamin of Paris put to shame the Child 
of Destiny. 

A Southern Court Scene 

Anonymous 

This declamation, like the preceding, demands frequent changes, 
with natural pauses. Use plenty of force where required — and many 
places require it — but vary your force to correspond with the thought. 
In the matter of gesture, remember that you are not the defendant 
nor his attorney, but you are to suggest what they did. Don't, for 
example, go through the movements of the defendant when "he 
bent and lifted a form from the ground," as we have seen speakers 
do, and don't tear open the prisoner's shirt, when you reach that 
incident. Simply looking or pointing at the imaginary prisoner is 
a far more effective gesture. 

A negro trial was in progress in the little village 
of Jeffersonville. The defendant's counsel had 
introduced no testimony. A man had been stabbed, 
had fallen dead, his hand clasped over the wound 
and from that hand a knife had dropped, which 
the defendant's wife seized and concealed. The 
prisoner declared emphatically that the deceased 
had assaulted him knife in hand and that he had 
killed him in self-defense. 

As he began his story, a tall thick-set gentleman 
entered the room and stood silent. The court- 
house was crowded to the door, the anxious multi- 
tude catching every word as it fell from the 
prisoner's lips. When he had ceased, the new- 
comer pushed his way down the crowded aisle, 



98 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

entered the rail, shook hands with the Court and 
attorneys and sat down. In view of the strong 
circumstantial evidence the prisoner's story had 
little effect, and this was easily swept away by a 
few cold words from the District Attorney. The 
case was passed to the jury and the Judge was 
preparing to deliver the charge, when the old 
gentleman arose. 

"If your Honor, please," he said, "the prisoner 
is entitled to the closing argument, and in the ab- 
sence of other counsel, I beg that you mark my 
name for the defense." 

"Mr. Clerk," said the Court, "mark General 
Robert Thomas for the defense." 

The silence was absolute. With eyes intent the 
jurymen sat motionless. Only this old man, grim, 
gray, and defiant, stood between the negro yonder 
and the grave. The past seemed to speak out of 
the silence to every man on that bench. 

Suddenly his lips opened, and he said with 
quick but quiet energy: 

"The knife found by the dead man's side was 
his own. He had drawn it before he was stabbed. 
The prisoner is a brave man, a strong man, and 
he would not have used a weapon upon one un- 
armed. 

"Why do I say he was brave? Every man on 
this jury shouldered his musket during the late 
war. Some, perhaps, were at Gettysburg. I well 
remember that fight. The enemy stood brave and 
determined, and met our charges with a grit and 
endurance that could not be shaken. Line after 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 99 

line melted away, until at last came Pickett's 
charge. When that magnificent command went in, 
a negro stood behind it, watching and waiting. 
You know the result. Out of that vortex of flame, 
that storm of lead and iron, a handful drifted back. 
From one to another the negro ran, then turned 
and followed in the track of the charge. On — on, 
he went; on through the smoke and flame, up to 
the very cannon themselves. There he bent and 
lifted a form from the ground. Together they 
rose and fell until, meeting them half way, I took 
the burden from the hero and bore it on to safety. 

"That burden was the senseless form of my 
brother and the man who bore him out; who 
brought him to me in his arms as a mother would 
carry a sick child; that man, my friends, sits here 
under my hand. See — if I speak not the truth." 

He tore open the prisoner's shirt and lay bare 
his breast. A great ragged seam marked it from 
right to left. 

"Look," he said, "that scar was won by a slave 
in an hour that tried the souls of freemen, and put 
to its highest test the best manhood in the South. 
No man who wins such wounds can thrust a knife 
into an unarmed foe." 

It may have been contrary to the evidence, but 
the jury without leaving their seats gave a verdict 
of "Not guilty," and the Prosecuting Attorney, who 
bore a scar on his own cheek, cheered as he re- 
ceived it. 



ioo Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Curse of Selfishness 

L. M. Cross 

Simply talk this out clearly, directly, and naturally. Take special 
pains to say naturally the dialect-dialogue between the boy and his 
father, and pause at the end to let the point "soak in." 

Selfish people live in a very narrow, small 
world. They see very little, they accomplish less, 
and they get absolutely nothing out of life. Their 
attempt to absorb all makes them lose the very 
things that count most in life. 

They keep their very feet planted on what they 
think they have or can get. They remind us of a 
boy of whom we have heard, who was being 
punished unmercifully by another boy. "Vy don't 
you hit the poy back," urged the father of the 
boy who was getting licked. "Fadder, I can't hit 
'im back, I'm standing on a ten-cent piece," re- 
plied the boy. 

Get away from your little attempts to cover 
everything that your feet may fall upon, and go 
into the battle of life, for the very action wili 
bring you exercise and a stronger manhood. 

The little grain of wheat does not really live 
until it is buried in the ground and dies, and then 
afterwards it reproduces itself a thousand times, 
and a man has to burst his little selfish soul if he 
wants to live a larger, more useful and really suc- 
cessful life. 

Suppose the Almighty didn't deal with us with 
a lavish hand ! There is no limit to His boundless 
atmosphere and the earth's fruitful and generous 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 101 

soil. The earth yields abundantly of fruit, vege- 
tables and grain. 

If Nature were selfish, the tree would grow 
alone, the potato plant would produce just one 
solitary potato, and rain would fall in a single drop 
if at all, instead of coming down in beneficent, 
copious showers. 

A selfish man makes no friends, for he is so 
wrapped in his own selfish self that he hasn't time 
to get acquainted with people. He knows nothing 
of the joy of giving, because he never gives. He 
is like a sponge on a rock, absorbing all the 
moisture within his reach, and giving out not a 
single drop. 

When a selfish man dies, he goes to his grave 
accompanied by as mournful, gloomy a lot of 
people as you could find attending and enjoying 
a minstrel show! 

The Girl in the Kitchen 

John H. Vincent 

Bear down on the thought in the first paragraph, and make that 
speak. This paragraph is a general introduction to your subject, 
and its close should be marked by a natural pause and change as the 
second paragraph is begun. 

There are many fields of service in life. We 
call them trades, pursuits, professions, callings. 
These demand a variety of gifts and talents — and 
of processes preparatory. Some require head- 
work, others dexterity, tact, genius. At the root 
of all attempt and achievement is manual labor — 
the house to be built, the ground cultivated, imole- 



102 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

ments manufactured, food provided ; and then come 
merchandizing, banking, civil and political devis- 
ings, and for all — education. It is a busy world. 
The measure of value is not alone in time spent 
nor physical energy expended. Much depends on 
faculty and quality of energy required, natural 
endowment, tact, ability, as when an artist paints 
a picture worth one thousand or ten thousand dol- 
lars, the canvas is not expensive, nor the pigments ; 
the value is in the soul of the artist. Much also 
depends on the ruling motive which is really the 
measure of merit. One artist paints a picture that, 
by the money he gains for it, he may live in luxu- 
rious ease and sensual gratification. Here a servant 
girl earns money by hard toil to help her brother 
through college. 

One of our most important modern contributors 
to civilization is the "girl in the kitchen." She 
may be a drudge or she may be a queen — all de- 
pends upon her own keynote— her motive, her 
ideal, her ruling purpose. 

The girl in the kitchen should be the domestic, 
artist of the house, — a queen of domestic science/ 
respecting herself because she follows a profession 
that contributes to the highest social conditions, to 
physical life, to the gratification of appetite, and 
really to the fine arts as well. She should be a 
lady in the highest sense of that title as applied to 
an honorable, sensible, genuine ambitious woman 
who is not ashamed to earn her own living in an 
honorable way. She should represent not a "so- 
cial class," but a "profession," and take her social 



T inning Declamations-How to Speak Them 103 

position according to the quality of her personality 
and not according to the effete distinctions of a 
social order — an order we ought by this time to 
have outgrown. 

Let us train our girls and boys to love home, 
to honor industry, to put a true estimate on neat- 
ness and taste, on economy and common sense, to 
respect everybody who believes in self-support, to 
treat servants with courtesy and kindness, to 
honor a lady, whether dressed in satin or linsey- 
woolsey; whether seated at the table or serving 
those who are seated at it ; and who remember the 
real measure of individual worth as God estimates 
it and as the common sense of society judges it. 
Let our new civilization take a step forward, and 
value at her real worth the girl in the kitchen. 



The Children of the Poor 

Theodore Parker 

Pathos is the emotion that runs all through this selection, and for 
effective delivery, it must be felt as one speaks. The touch of irony 
along with the pathos in the last paragraph, should also be noted 
and expressed. 

If you would know the life of one of those poor 
boys in our State prisons you would wonder and 
weep. Let me take one of them at random out 
of the mass. He was born, unwelcome, amid 
wretchedness and want. His coming increased 
both. Miserably he struggles through his infancy, 
less tended than the lion's whelp. He becomes a 
boy. He is covered with rags only, and those 



104 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

squalid with long-accumulated filth. He wanders 
about your streets, too low even to seek employ- 
ment, now snatching from a gutter half -rotten 
fruit, which the owner flings away. He is ignorant ; 
he has never entered a school house; to him even 
the alphabet is a mystery. He is young in years, 
yet old in misery. There is no hope in his face. 
He herds with others like himself, low, ragged, 
hungry and idle. If misery loves company he finds 
that satisfaction. Follow him to his home at night ; 
he herds in a cellar; in the same sty with father, 
mother, brothers, sisters, and perhaps yet other 
families of like degree. What served him for 
dress by day is his only bed by night. 

Well, this boy steals some trifle, a biscuit, a bit 
of rope, or a knife from a shop window. He is 
seized and carried to jail. The day comes for 
trial. He is marched through the streets in hand- 
cuffs, the companion of drunkards and thieves, 
thus deadening the little self-respect which nature 
left even in an outcast's bosom. He sits there 
chained like a beast ; a boy in irons ! the sport and 
mockery of men vulgar as the common sewer. His 
trial comes. Of course he is convicted. The 
show of his countenance is witness against him. 
His rags and dirt, his ignorance, his vagrant 
habits, his idleness, all testify against him. That 
face so young, and yet so impudent, so sly, so 
writ all over with embryo villainy, is evidence 
enough. The jury are soon convinced, for they 
see his temptations in his look, and surely know 
that in such a condition men will steal; yes, they 



Winning Declamations— How to Speak Them 105 

themselves would steal. The judge represents the 
law, and that practically regards it a crime for a 
boy to be weak and poor. 

I have been told a story, and I wish it might be 
falsely told, of a boy, in one of our cities, of six- 
teen, sent to the house of correction for five years 
because he stole a bunch of keys, and coming out 
of jail at twenty-one, unable to write, or read, or 
calculate, and with no trade but that of picking 
oakum. Yet he had been five years the child of 
the State, and in that college for the poor! Who 
would employ such a youth; with such a reputa- 
tion; with the smell of the jail in his very breath? 
Not your shrewd men of business — they know the 
risk; not your respectable men, members of 
churches and all that; not they! Why, it would 
hurt a man's reputation for piety to do good in that 
way. Besides, the risk is great, and it argues a 
great deal more Christianity than it is popular to 
have, for a respectable man to employ such a 
youth. He is forced back into crime again. I 
say forced, for honest men will not employ him 
when the State shoves him out of jail. Soon you 
will have him in the court again, to be punished 
more severely. Then he goes to the State prison, 
and then again, and again, till death mercifully 
ends his career ! 



io6 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Boy and the Juvenile Court 

Ben B. Lindsey 

Judge Lindsey has been doing a great work for wayward boys 
in Denver because he sympathizes with them — takes their point of 
view. You must also take a sympathetic attitude in order to speak 
this declamation effectively. Bring out the dialogue naturally, es- 
pecially the street dialect of Micky. 

Boys have feelings. They like to have friends. 
There isn't much use to try to arouse pride unless 
there be some one whom they want to please, and, 
in pleasing, will in turn be pleased. If they have 
no friends, the first thing to do is to supply the 
friend, and the pride, in most cases, will come out. 
If they have the wrong kind of friends, it is a 
good thing to quietly supply the right kind. 

Take the case of Micky. Before Micky got in 
the juvenile court one of the Denver papers had 
published his picture with a graphic account under 
the double-leaded headline, "The Worst Kid in 
Town." Micky had feelings. He made the paper 
so much trouble that they finally gave him a job. 
One unlucky day, however, as he himself explains 
it, he got "canned." After he was placed on proba- 
tion, he was arrested on a false suspicion, as he 
stated to me, "simply because the bull had to pinch 
somebody and he pinched me because he had been 
reading the Post" (the offending newspaper). The 
result was a second article entitled, "The Misfor- 
tunes of Micky," in which it was announced that 
he had been sent to the Reform School. Micky 
was simply the victim of a newspaper exaggera- 
tion, as other distinguished people have been before. 



Winning D eclamations-H ow to Speak Them 107 

He came to me in a great state of perturbation 
the next day, with the offending paper in his hand. 
He said, "Judge, just look at dat." I read rather 
surprisedly that I had committed Micky to the 
Industrial School. "Well," I said, "Micky, this 
is very distressing." "Yes," he said, "I knowed 
it was a lie when I seed it, but," he said, the tears 
welling in his eyes, "dat ain't de worst of it. Deys 
done gone and put it on the sporting page, and 
all my friends will see it." Now, Micky's friends 
were among the sporting fraternity. If there was 
a prize-fight on, before Micky got in the juvenile 
court — and the police would have you believe, even 
after — Micky was there if he had to go in through 
the roof. He is now a special probation officer 
in the juvenile court and very proud of his job. 
He can "keep tab" on more bad kids than the 
entire police force. He says himself that he has 
"done reformed long ago," and I am inclined to 
credit the statement. 

The best way to reform a boy waywardly dis- 
posed is first to understand him. You have got to 
get inside of him and see things through his eyes, 
understand his motives, have sympathy and pa- 
tience with his faults, just as far as you can, re- 
membering that more can be accomplished through 
love than by any other method. 



108 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Modern Farmer 

C. W. Burkett 

The farmer enters into his own at the very 
moment he realizes that he ought to be educated; 
when he uses his powers of thought to till his 
land and to grow his crops ; when he uses his 
muscles less and his brain more; when he spares 
his physical body and crowds the tool or machine 
he has created. The effect of the elimination of 
hand labor and the use of muscle-saving machinery 
on the physical and mental man is soon apparent. 
Before the coming of machinery this was true, as 
Edward Markham has said: 

Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox, 

He stands and leans on his hoe and gazes on the ground ; 
The emptiness of the ages on his face, 

And on his back the burdens of the world. 

While now, as he rides and directs every sort 
of machine that is made to do his will, he fittingly 
represents his highest and loftiest mission. He 
stands now as Henry Jerome Stockard sees him: 

Imperial man's co-worker with the wind 
And rain and light and heat and cold, and all 

The agencies of God to feed and clothe 
And render beautiful and glad the world! 

Foremost among the causes that has occasioned 
this change in physical and mental man, in adding 
ease, comfort, and length of life, in making pos- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 109 

sible the nation's wealth and greatness, is the 
application of machinery to agriculture. 

Consider for a moment the ancient man with 
his sickle in one of our Western wheat fields along- 
side a modern combined header and thresher, 
which takes twenty feet at a "through" and drops 
the grain off in sacks, imagine, if you can, how 
many of these fellows with the sickle it would 
take to harvest our immense crops of 60,000,000 
acres of wheat. Put your ancient farmer with his 
crooked stick for a plow in one of these wheat 
fields and count up, if you can, at some idle hour 
how many like him it would take to do the work 
of the man who to-day drives the modern steam 
gang-plow at the rate of ten miles an hour, taking 
twenty-four one-foot furrows at a "through." 

If we to-day used the old hand methods and 
produced our present food supply, fifty millions of 
people more would need to be added to our popula- 
tion, and all of us would be required in our agri- 
cultural fields. Even then we should need to eat 
sparingly and to fast often, else the day of little 
harvest might come and we perish altogether. 

Let your farm be a factory, where most of the 
crops raised shall be consumed as feed for live 
stock, that finished products may be made and sold 
as such, rather than as raw materials in which 
form they were raised. Such a system of farming 
will lead to permanent improvement of the soil ; 
it will secure from it the highest efficiency. These 
things it means : there shall be diversity of crops ; 
more live stock shall be bred and fed on the 




no Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

factory-farm; the entire plant shall be managed as 
a business enterprise of the largest magnitude. 



At the Tomb of Napoleon 

Robert G. Ingersoll 

This has long been a favorite for declamation, and naturally so, 
for it is in Ingersoll's best style. A vivid imagination, that will 
enable you to see, at the moment of speaking, the things described, 
is essential for effective delivery. Bring out naturally the changes. 
Note that each one of the incidents of Napoleon's career requires a 
different emotion. Don't ruin this part of the declamation, as is 
often done, by excessive gesturing. If you see the pictures vividly, 
your audience will also see them without constant gestures. The 
rate in the last paragraph should be much slower than the one pre- 
ceding, where action is portrayed. 

To show how military glory fails to bring happi- 
ness, Robert G. Ingersoll once said: 

A little while ago I stood by the grave of the 
old Napoleon. It is a magnificent tomb of gilt and 
gold, fit almost for a dead deity. I gazed upon the 
sarcophagus of rare Egyptian marble in which 
rests at last the ashes of that restless man. I 
leaned upon the balustrade and thought of the 
career of the greatest soldier of the modern world. 
I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine 
contemplating suicide. I saw him quelling the 
mob in the streets of Paris. I saw him at the head 
of the army of Italy. I saw him crossing the 
Bridge of Lodi with the tricolor in his hand. I 
saw him in Egypt in the shadows of the Pyramids. 
I saw him conquer the Alps and mingle the eagles 
of France with the eagles of the crags. I saw him 
in Russia, where the infantry of the snow and the 




Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them in 

cavalry of the wild blasts scattered his legions 
like winter's withered leaves. I saw him at Leipsic 
in defeat and disaster, driven by a million bayonets, 
clutched like a wild beast, banished to Elba. I 
saw him escape and retake an empire by the force 
of his genius. I saw him upon the frightful field 
of Waterloo, where Chance and Fate combined to 
wreck the fortunes of their former king, and I 
saw him a prisoner on the rock at St. Helena, 
with his arms calmly folded behind his back, gaz- 
ing steadfastly out upon the sad and solemn sea. 

And I thought of all the widows and orphans he 
had made; of all the tears that had been shed for 
his glory; of the only woman who had ever loved 
him torn from his heart by the ruthless hand of 
ambition. And I said, I would rather have been a 
poor French peasant and worn wooden shoes, I 
would rather have lived in a hut with the vines 
growing over the door and the grapes growing 
purple in the kisses of the autumn sun; yes, I 
would rather have been that poor peasant and gone 
down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless 
dust, than to have been that impersonation of 
force and murder known as Napoleon the Great. 



H2 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Making of Our Country's Flag 

Franklin K. Lane 

This selection has an interesting history. It was delivered by Mr. 
Lane, U. S. Secretary of the Interior, before an audience composed 
of government employees at Washington. Bring out the dialogue 
naturally, denoting the changes as each character speaks. The last 
paragraph is a strong climax, and requires sustained feeling and 
force. 

This morning, as I passed into the Land Office, 
the flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and 
from its rippling folds I heard it say : "Good morn- 
ing, Mr. Flag-maker." 

"I beg your pardon, Old Glory," I said, "you are 
mistaken. I am not the President of the United 
States, nor the Vice-President, nor a member of 
Congress, nor even a General in the Army. I am 
only a Government clerk." 

"I greet you again, Mr. Flag-maker," replied the 
gay voice. "I know you well. You are the man 
who worked in the swelter of yesterday straight- 
ening out the tangle of that farmer's homestead 
in Idaho." 

"No, I am not," I was forced to confess. 

"Well, perhaps you are the one who discovered 
the mistake in that Indian contract in Oklahoma?" 
'No, wrong again," I said. 

'Well, you helped to clear that patent for the 
hopeful inventor in New York, or pushed the open- 
ing of that new ditch in Colorado, or made that 
mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief to the 
old soldier in Wyoming. No matter, whichever 






Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 113 

one of these beneficent individuals you may happen 
to be, I give you greeting, Mr. Flag-maker." 

I was about to pass on, feeling that I was being 
mocked, when the flag stopped me with these words : 

"You know, the world knows, that yesterday the 
President spoke a word that made happier the 
future of ten million peons in Mexico, but that act 
looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which 
the boy in Georgia is making to win the corn-club 
prize this summer. Yesterday the Congress spoke 
a word which will open the door of Alaska, but 
a mother in Michigan worked from sunrise until 
far into the night to give her boy an education. 
She, too, is making the flag. Yesterday we made 
a new law to prevent financial panics; yesterday, 
no doubt a school-teacher in Ohio taught his first 
letters to a boy who will write a song that will give 
cheer to the millions of our race. We are all mak- 
ing the flag." 

''But," I said, impatiently, "these people were 
only working." 

Then came the great shout from the flag. 

"Let me tell you who I am. The work that we 
do is the making of the real flag. I am not the flag, 
at all. I am but its shadow. I am whatever you 
make me, nothing more. I am your belief in your- 
self, your dream of what a people may become. 
I live a changing life, a life of moods and pas- 
sions, of heartbreaks and tired muscles. Some- 
times I am strong with pride, when men do an 
honest work, fitting the rails together truly. Some- 
times I droop, for then purpose has gone from 



ii4 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

me, and cynically I play the coward. Sometimes 
I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that blasts 
judgment. But always I am all that you hope to 
be and have the courage to try for. I am song and 
fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope. I 
am the day's work of the weakest man and the 
largest dream of the most daring. I am the Con- 
stitution and the courts, statutes and statute- 
makers, soldier and dreadnought, drayman and 
street-sweep, cook, counselor, and clerk. I am the 
battle of yesterday and the mistake of to-morrow. 
I am the mystery' of the men who do without 
knowing why. I am the clutch of an idea and the 
reasoned purpose of resolution. I am no more 
than what you believe me to be, and I am all that 
you believe I can be. I am what you make me, 
nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a 
bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the 
pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes 
this nation. My stars and my stripes are your 
dreams and your labors. They are bright with 
cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, be- 
cause you have made them so out of your hearts, 
for you are the makers of the flag, and it is well 
that you glory in the making." 



Winning Declamations-HQW to Speak Them n, 



Incentives to Patriotism 

David J. Burrill 

The closing of a speech delivered in New York City in April, iqio. 
This declamation is also full of changes. A great variety of emotions 
are expressed, and these should be denoted by proper transitions and 
voiced in appropriate tones. Speak the poetic quotations as you 
would prose, and the rhythm will take care of itself: don't spoil the 
effect by the use of a sing-song delivery. 

The two best preachers on Manhattan Island 
to-day are two men who stand in bronze by the 
roadside; one of them on the west side drive, in 
the Park — a man in his regimentals, who was 
placed there to commemorate the valor of the 
Seventh Regiment. On the pedestal of the monu- 
ment is inscribed his sermon on patriotism. It 
reads: "For the Glory of my Country!" 

The other is down at the other end of the Island 
— Nathan Hale! Standing on the busiest street in 
all the world; at the very heart of the motion of 
this great metropolis — the young school-master and 
patriot, with his hands bound behind him; ready 
to go out to Rutgers orchard to be hung! And 
there in the presence of the passing millions, he 
is preaching as no clergyman or politician can 
preach with living lips, those last words of his, 
"I regret in dying that I have but one life to offer 
for my country." 

I tell you, young men, back of all the good advice 
that will be given you to-night, there is nothing 
like this; Love the Republic! Believe in the prin- 
ciples that underlie it ! Get centered there and you 



n6 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

will never be bothered about your duty as a 
citizen. 

I have heard the Scotch people sing "Scots wha 
hae wi' Wallace bled" ; I have heard the Germans 
sing "Die Wacht am Rhein," in their country; and 
I have myself sung with the Irish: 

I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand, 
He said, "How is old Ireland and how does she stand?" 
"She's the most distressful country that ever you have seen, 
They're hanging men and women for the wearin' of the 
green." 

I have heard the English in Hyde Park sing "God 
Save the King!" But in all the music that I have 
ever heard in the glory of national life, I have 
never heard an anthem that stirs my blood like: 

My country, 'tis of thee! 
Sweet land of Liberty, 

Of thee I sing! 
Long may our land be bright 
With Freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by thy might, 

Great God, our Kinc! 

And the symbol of such protection is: 

Your flag and my flag, and, oh, how much it holds ! 
Your land and my land, secure within its folds; 
Your heart and my heart beat quicker at the the sight, 
Sun kissed and wind tossed, the red and blue and white; 
The one flag — the great flag — the flag for me and you, 
Glorifies all else beside, the red and white and blue! 



POETICAL SELECTIONS 

PREFATORY NOTE 

The poems that follow were selected as a result 
of the following tests: (i) Is the poem of real 
literary merit? Is it worth memorizing? (2) In 
case of an extract, is it a unit in thought? (3) Is 
it otherwise suited to the purposes of reciting be- 
fore an audience? Further, poems requiring im- 
personation and those written in dialect have been 
omitted. 

The oral interpretation of literature is now hap- 
pily being restored in our schools. The old-time 
practice of reciting poetry has been sadly neglected 
in modern times, for most poems can hardly be 
appreciated without being heard. Memoriter de- 
livery conduces to a keener appreciation, and is a 
means of mental enrichment which no "modern" 
method of teaching literature can equal. 

The oral expression should, of course, reveal a 
sympathetic interpretation and a sincere, natural 
manner. The capital fault in reciting poetry is 
the "sing-song" tone, with its regularly recurring 
emphasis, a pause at the end of each line, and the 
falling inflection about every other line, regardless 
of the thought to be expressed. The best general 
rule is, to read poetry as you would prose, and 

117 



u8 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

the rhythm will take care of itself. Another com- 
mon fault is over-dramatic and excessive gesture. 
The traditional elocutionist is wont to think that 
in the oral rendering every emotion in a poem must 
be pictured in some way by bodily movements. The 
voicing of genuine emotion is rarely accompanied 
by physical contortions. For the most effective 
oral expression, most of the poems in this book re- 
quire few or no gestures. 

Some specific suggestions as to interpretation and 
delivery are contained in comments preceding a 
number of the following poems. 

The Wonderful World 
W. B. Rands 

This poem and those immediately following are good selections for 
the younger children, — in the second, third, or fourth grades. In 
speaking this poem, think of the world and the things it contains, as 
you speak. Be sure to place the proper emphasis in the last two 
lines of the last stanza. 

I 

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world, 
With the wonderful water round you curled, 
And the wonderful grass upon your breast, — 
World, you are beautifully drest 

2 

The wonderful air is over me, 
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree, 
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills, 
And talks to itself on the tops of the hills. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 119 



You friendly Earth! how far do you go 

With the wheatfields that nod and the rivers that 

flow, 
With cities and gardens, and cliffs, and isles 
And people upon you for thousands of miles? 

4 
Ah, you are so great, and I am so small, 

I tremble to think of you, World, at all ; 

And yet, when I said my prayers, to-day, 

A whisper inside me seemed to say, 

"You are more than the Earth, though you are 

such a dot; 

You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!" 

All Things Bright and Beautiful 

Cecil Frances Alexander 

Beware of a sing-song in speaking this poem. Use the rising in- 
flection at the end of each line except at the close of each stanza; 
and the last lines of stanzas 4 and 6 should also be passed with th* 
rising inflection. 

I 

All things bright and beautiful, 
All creatures great and small, 

All things wise and wonderful, — 
The Lord God made them all. 



Each little flower that opens, 
Each little bird that sings, — 

He made their glowing colors, 
He made their tiny wings. 



120 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

3 

The rich man in his castle, 

The poor man at his gate, 
God made them, high or lowly, 
And order'd their estate. 

4 
The purple-headed mountain, 

The river running by, 
The morning, and the sunset 

That lighteth up the sky. 

5 
The cold wind in the winter, 

The pleasant summer sun, 

The ripe fruits in the garden, — >. 

He made them every one. 

6 

The tall trees in the greenwood, 
The meadows where we play, 

The rushes by the water 
We gather every day ; — 

7 
He gaves us eyes to see them, 

And lips that we might tell 

How great is God Almighty, 

Who hath made all things well. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 121 

Song of Life 

Charles MacKay 

Note that this poem, up to near the close, illustrates and leads up 
to the thought contained in the last four lines, and these lines should 
be given with proper emphasis and strong force. No gestures are 
needed. 

I 

A traveler on a dusty road 

Strewed acorns on the lea; 
And one took root and sprouted up, 

And grew into a tree. 
Love sought its shade at evening-time, 

To breathe its early vows; 
And Age was pleased, in heights of noon, 

To bask beneath its boughs. 
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, 

The birds sweet music bore — 
It stood a glory in its place, 

A blessing evermore. 

2 

A little spring had lost its way 

Amid the grass and fern; 
A passing stranger scooped a well 

Where weary men might turn. 
He walled it in, and hung with care 

A ladle on the brink; 
He thought not of the deed he did, 

But judged that Toil might drink. 
He passed again, and lo ! the well, 

By summer never dried, 
Had cooled ten thousand parched tongues, 

And saved a life beside. 




122 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

3 

A nameless man, amid the crowd 

That thronged the daily mart, 
Let fall a word of hope and love 

Unstudied from the heart, 
A whisper on the tumult thrown, 

A transitory breath, 
It raised a brother from the dust, 

It saved a soul from death. 
O germ ! O fount ! O word of love ! 

O thought at random cast! 
Ye were but little at the first, 

But mighty at the last. 



Which Loved Best? 

Joy Allison 

Take special pains to give the quotations naturally and to place 
the emphasis so that the character of each child is fittingly portrayed. 



u 



I love you, mother," said little John. 
Then forgetting his work, his cap went on, 
And he was off to the garden swing, 
Leaving his mother the wood to bring. 



"I love you, mother," said little Nell, 
"I love you better than tongue can tell." 
Then she teased and pouted half the day, 
Till mother rejoiced when she went to play. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 123 

3 

"I love you, mother," said little Fan. 

"To-day I'll help you all I can." 

To the cradle then she did softly creep, 

And rocked the baby till it fell asleep. 

4 
Then stepping softly, she took the broom, 

And swept the floor and dusted the room; 

Busy and happy all day was she, 

Helpful and cheerful as child could be. 



5 
"I love you, mother," again they said — 

Three little children, going to bed. 

How do you think that mother guessed 

Which of them really loved her best? 



In School Days 

John Greenleaf Whittier 

You will find several lines in this poem which should be passed 
without pausing at the end. Thus you will avoid any tendency to a 
sing-song delivery. Aim to give naturally the quotation in stanza 9, 
and be sure to employ a rather long pause between stanzas 9 and 10. 

I 

Still sits the schoolhouse by the road, 

A ragged beggar sunning; 
Around it still the sumachs grow, 

And blackberry vines are running. 



124 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

2 

Within, the master's desk is seen, 
Deep-scarred by raps official ; 

The warping floor, the battered seats, 
The jack-knife's carved initial. 

3 

The charcoal frescos on its wall ; 

Its door's worn sill, betraying 
The feet that, creeping slow to school, 
Went storming out to playing! 

4 
Long years ago a winter sun 

Shone over it at setting; 

Lit up its western window-panes, 

And low eaves' icy fretting. 

5 

It touched the tangled golden curls, 

And brown eyes full of grieving, 
Of one who still her steps delayed 
When all the school were leaving. 

6 

For near her stood the little boy 

Her childish favor singled; 
His cap pulled low upon a face 

Where pride and shame were mingled. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 125 

7 
Pushing with restless feet the snow 

To right and left, he lingered ; — 

As restlessly her tiny hands 

The blue-checked apron fingered. 

8 
He saw her lift her eyes ; he felt 

The soft hand's light caressing, 
And heard the tremble of her voice, 

As if a fault confessing: 

9 
"I'm sorry that I spelt the word : 

I hate to go above you, 

Because," — the brown eyes lower fell, — 

"Because, you see, I love you !" 

10 

Still memory to a gray-haired man 
That sweet child- face is showing, 

Dear girl ! the grasses on her grave 
Have forty years been growing! 

11 

He lives to learn, in life's hard school, 
How few who pass above him 

Lament their triumph and his loss, 
Like her, — because they love him. 



126 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Little Brown Hands 

John Boyle O'Reilly 

This poem is reputed to have been written by a girl fifteen years 
old, and it is pronounced by the author to be the finest he ever 
read. He published these lines four times, declaring that he liked 
them better every time he read them. A moderate rate should be used 
in delivery, dwelling upon the words that chiefly present the pictures. 
Strong force should be used in the last two stanzas, making the 
closing words of the last stanza the climax of the whole. 

I 

They drive up the cows from the pasture, 

Up through the long shady lane, 
Where the quail whistles loud in the wheatfield 

That is yellow with ripening grain. 

2 

They find in the thick waving grasses 

Where the scarlet-lipped strawberry grows; 

They gather the earliest snowdrops 
And the first crimson bud of the rose. 

3 

They toss the hay in the meadow 

They gather the elder-bloom white, 
They find where the dusky grapes purple 
In the soft-tinted October light. 

4 
They know where the apples hang ripest 

And are sweeter than Italy's wines; 

They know where the fruit hangs thickest 

On the long, thorny blackberry vines. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 127 

5 

They gather the delicate seaweeds, 

And built tiny castles of sand ; 
They pick up the beautiful seashells 
Fairy barks that have drifted to land. 

6 

They wave from the tall, rock treetops, 
Where the oriole's hammock-nest swings, 

And at nighttime are foiled in slumber 
By a song that a fond mother sings. 

7 
Those who toil bravely are strongest, 

The humble and poor become great; 

And from those brown-handed children 

Shall grow mighty rulers of state. 

8 
The pen of the author and statesman, 

The noble and wise of the land — 
The sword and chisel and palette, 

Shall be held in the little brown hand. 



128 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Flag Goes By 
Henry H. Bennett 

Although "Hats off" should be given in the quick, ringing tones 
of a command, avoid saying hat-so ff. Note that the marked transi- 
tions in this poem come between stanzas 2 and 3, and 5 and 6. 
Stanzas 1 and 2 describe the flag as it passes by. Stanzas 3, 4, and 5 
tell of what the flag stands for, and these should be given in slow 
rate, full orotund tones, and with strong force. Stanza 6 is simply 
a refrain — an echo of stanza 1 — and thus makes a pleasing and ef- 
fective close. 

I 

Hats off! 

Along the street there comes 

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums. 

A flash of color beneath the sky : 

Hats off! 
The flag is passing by ! 



2 

Blue and crimson and white it shines, 



Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. 

Hats off ! 
The colors before us fly; 
But more than the flag is passing by. 

Sea fights and land fights, grim and great, 
Fought to make and to save the State : 
Weary marches and sinking ships; 
Cheers of victory on dying lips; 



i 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 129 

4 
Days of plenty and years of peace; 

March of a strong land's swift increase; 

Equal justice, right and law, 

Stately honor and reverend awe; 

5 
Sign of a nation, great and strong 

To ward her people from foreign wrong: 

Pride and glory and honor, — all 

Live in the colors to stand or fall. 

6 

Hats off! 
Along the street there comes 
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums; 
And loyal hearts are beating high: 

Hats off ! 
The flag is passing by! 

To the Man Behind the Plow 

Jake H. Harrison 

Note that many of the lines in this poem should be passed without 
pausing at the end. In the first stanza, for example, no pause should 
occur after "furrow" and "nature." Note also that the first three 
stanzas are descriptive and praiseful of the man behind the plow, 
and require moderate rate in delivery. Stanza 4 begins an ex- 
hortation, or appeal, and from this point on increased rate and force 
are required. 

I 

When the ground is nice and mellow 

And the air is crisp and fine, 
And you cut the turning furrow 

Like the laying of a line ; 



130 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

While aroma pulses upward 

Making glad the vagrant air, 
There is something sweet in nature 

That is comforting and rare. 

2 
There is something in the furrow 

As you walk behind the plow, 
Giving strength to healthy labor 

And your muscles feel it now; 
There is pleasure in the turning 

Of the fertile, mellow soil, 
There is glory in the doing 

Of a useful, honest toil. 

3 

There is honor in the gaining 

Of a peaceful livelihood, 
There is motive in your actions 

That will do your country good; 
While you help to feed the millions 

And relieve the hunger stress, 
You perform a sacred labor 

That the Lord will surely bless. 

4 
Bear the banner proudly forward, 

You are working to the van, 
Cut the furrow straight, remember, 

Though a toiler, be a man; 
You must feed — then rule the nations 

Though you are a country wight, 
Do it with an honest purpose 

And the brawny arm of Right. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 131 

5 
Cease to be like driven cattle, 

Turn the tables — take command, 
Curb the bloody lords of battle, 

Soothe and pacify the land; 
Grow no longer "cannon fodder" 

For the use of warring kings, 
But produce the blessed product 

That from justice ever springs. 

6 

Bid the warring Nations "Stop it!" 

You possess the strength — then move, 
Stop this devastating conflict, 

And your right to govern prove ; 
Sound the tocsin "Peace and Plenty," 

Wind your trumpet now, and blow! 
Starve the war lords to submission, 

Say "You Must!" and make it so. 

Aspirations 

Anonymous 

Think of explaining to and impressing upon your hearers the 
thought of this poem. Render it in a conversational tone, avoiding 
the sing-song style. Make a special effort to place the emphasis 
so as to bring out the thought. 

I 

Our aims are all too high; we try 

To gain the summit at a bound, 
When we should reach it step by step, 

And climb the ladder round by round. 



132 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

He who would climb the heights sublime, 
Or breathe the purer air of life, 

Must not expect to rest in ease, 
But brace himself for toil or strife. 

2 

We should not in our blindness seek 

To grasp alone for grand and great, 
Disdaining every smaller good, — 

For trifles make the aggregate. 
And if a cloud should hover o'er 

Our weary path-way like a pall, 
Remember God permits it there, 

And His good purpose reigns o'er all. 

3 

Life should be full of earnest work, 

Our hearts undashed by fortune's frown; 
Let perseverance conquer fate, 

And merit seize the victor's crown. 
The battle is not to the strong, 

The race not always to the fleet; 
And he w r ho seeks to pluck the stars, 

Will lose the jewels at his feet. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 133 

A Texas Mockingbird 

Will P. Lockhart 

See and hear the mockingbird as you speak. The rate should be 
moderate to slow. Note that each odd-numbered line in stanza i 
requires no pause at the end. Bring out the contrast expressed 
in the first and last four lines of stanza 3, not failing to emphasize 
"mine." 

I 

When the hush of night has fallen 

Over all the countryside, 
And the harvest moon's refulgence 

Is a glorious silvery tide, 
When the balmy Southern breezes 

In the murmurous trees are heard, 
Then begins the wondrous carol 

Of the Texas mockingbird. 

2 

Strains so pure, so full of beauty, 

Not a discord mars his note; 
Like a tide of liquid silver 

Pours his medley from his throat. 
As designed by his creator, 

Nature's king of song is he, 
And a bird of various nature — >. 

All his tribe's epitome. 

3 

Let the painted prima donna 

Ply the utmost of her art, 
To the roar of fulsome plaudits 
That are empty as her heart; 



134 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Mine the stage of moonlit verdure, 
By the perfumed zephyrs stirred; 

Mine the songs of God's designing, 
By a Texas mockingbird. 

For Those Who Fail 

Joaquin Miller 

Study on the proper placing of emphasis to bring out the thought. 
If you think of some one you have known who has failed and yet 
deserves praise, it will help you to give this poem with appreciation 
and feeling. 

I 

"All honor to him who shall win the prize," 
The world has cried for a thousand years, 

But to him who tries, and who fails and dies, 
I give great honor and glory and tears. 

2 
Give glory and honor and pitiful tears 

To all who fail in their deeds sublime, 
Their ghosts are many in the van of years, 

They were born with time in advance of time. 

3 

Oh, great is the hero who wins a name, 

But greater many and many a time, 
Some pale-faced fellow who dies in shame 
And lets God finish the thought sublime. 

4 
And great is the man with a sword undrawn, 

And good is the man who refrains from wine, 
But the man who fails and yet still fights on, 

Lo! he is the twin-born brother of mine. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 135 

The Rich Man and the Poor Man 

Ivan Chemnitzer 

You will need to read this poem over carefully two or three times 
in order to grasp the thought and to express it naturally. A conversa- 
tional style is best adapted to the delivery. Do not fail to bring 
out the many changes that occur, or to express the irony contained 
in stanza 4. The matter of emphasis should be thoughtfully 
studied. If, for example, you fail to emphasize "poor" at the begin- 
ning of stanza 5, one might think you were still speaking of the 
rich man described in stanza 4. 

I 

So goes the world; — if wealthy, you may call 
This friend, that brother ; — friends and brothers all ; 

Though you are worthless — witless — never mind 
it; 
You may have been a stable-boy — what then? 
'Tis wealth, good sir, makes honorable men. 

You seek respect, no doubt, and you will find it. 

2 

But if you are poor, Heaven help you ! though your 
sire 

Had royal blood within him, and though you 

Possess the intellect of angels, too, 
'Tis all in vain; — the world will ne'er inquire 
On such a score: Why should it take the pains? 
'Tis easier to weigh purses, sure, than brains. 

3 

I once saw a poor fellow, keen and clever, 

Witty and wise: — he paid a man a visit, 
And no one noticed him, and no one ever 

Gave him a welcome. "Stranger!" cried I, 
"whence is it?" 



136 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

He walked on this side, then on that, 
He tried to introduce a social chat; 
Now here, now there, in vain he tried; 
Some formally and freezingly replied, 

And some 
Said by their silence — "Better stay at home." 

4 
A rich man burst the door; 
As Croesus rich, I'm sure 
He could not pride himself upon his wit, 
And as for wisdom, he had none of it; 
He had what's better; he had wealth. 

What a confusion! — all stand up erect — 
These crowd around to ask him of his health; 

These bow in honest duty and respect; 
And these arrange a sofa or a chair, 
And these conduct him there. 
"Allow me, sir, the honor"; — then a bow 
Down to the earth. — Is't possible to show 
Meet gratitude for such kind condescension? 

5 
The poor man hung his head, 
And to himself he said, 

"This is indeed beyond my comprehension"; 
Then looking round, 
One friendly face he found, 

And said, "Pray tell me why is wealth preferred 
To wisdom?" — "That's a silly question, friend!" 
Replied the other — "have you never heard, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 137 

A man may lend his store 
Of gold or silver ore, 
But wisdom none can borrow, none can lend?" 

The Liberty Bell 

Anonymous 

This poem has long been a favorite for recitation, though it is 
sometimes ruined in delivery by too frequent and over-dramatic 
gestures. The selection is full of changes, and can hardly be spoken 
in a lifeless, monotonous way if you appreciate at all the scenes 
described. Think of the old Independence Hall at Philadelphia as 
you tell the story, and see this now and again by glancing at it 
through a window in the auditorium where you are speaking. The 
action described in stanzas i and 2 requires a rather rapid move- 
ment and ringing tones. Give the quotations in stanza 3 just as 
you imagine each of the different persons spoke. The only gesture 
expression required here is to turn to different parts of the audience 
as each character is quoted. Stanza 5 marks a transition and should 
be preceded by a pause. At stanza 6 the rate is much faster, con- 
tinuing until the boy's "joyous cry" is uttered. Then another transi- 
tion, or change, occurs, the rate being rapid till the end of stanza 8. 
Here again a change occurs, and stanza 9 should be given with slow 
rate, round, full tones, and strong force. 

I 

There was tumult in the city, 

In the quaint old Quaker town, 
And the streets were rife with people 

Pacing restless up and down; 
People gathering at corners, 

Where they whispered each to each, 
And the sweat stood on their temples, 

With the earnestness of speech. 

2 

As the bleak Atlantic currents 

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore, 



138 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

So they beat against the State House, 

So they surged against the door; 
And the mingling of their voices 

Made a harmony profound, 
Till the quiet street of Chestnut, 

Was all turbulent with sound. 

3 

"Will they do it?" "Dare they do it?" 

"Who is speaking?" "What's the news?" 
"What of Adams?" "What of Sherman?" 

"Oh, God grant they won't refuse!" 
"Make some way there !" "Let me nearer !" 

"I am stifling!" "Stifle then; 
When a nation's life's at hazard, 

We've no time to think of men!" 

4 
So they beat against the portal, — 

Man and woman, maid and child; 
And the July sun in heaven 

On the scene looked down and smiled; 
The same sun that saw the Spartan 

Shed his patriot blood in vain, 
Now beheld the soul of freedom 

All unconquered rise again, 

5 ] 

Aloft in that high steeple 

Sat the bellman, old and gray; 
He was weary of the tyrant 
And his iron-sceptred sway; 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 139 

So he sat with one hand ready 

On the clapper of the bell, 
When his eye should catch the signal, 

Of the glorious news to tell. 

6 
See! see! the dense crowd quivers 

Through all its lengthy line, 
As the boy beside the portal 

Looks forth to give the sign ! 
With his small hands upward lifted, 

Breezes dallying with his hair, 
Hark! with deep, clear intonation, 

Breaks his young voice on the air. 

7 
Hushed the people's swelling murmur, 

List the boy's strong joyous cry! 
"Ring!" he shouts aloud; "Ring! Grandpa! 

Ring! Oh, Ring for LIBERTY !" 
And straightway, at the signal, 

The old bellman lifts his hand, 
And sends the good news, making 

Iron music through the land. 

8 

How they shouted ! What rejoicing ! 

How the old bell shook the air, 
Till the clang of freedom ruffled 

The calm gliding Delaware! 
How the bonfires and the torches 

Shone upon the night's repose, 



140 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

And from the flames, like Phoenix, 
Fair Liberty arose! 

9 
That old bell now is silent, 

And hushed its iron tongue, 
But the spirit it awakened 

Still lives — forever young. 
And while we greet the sunlight 

On the Fourth of each July, 
We'll ne'er forget the bellman, 

Who, 'twixt the earth and sky, 
Rung out Our Independence, 

Which, please God, shall never die! 



Prospice 

Robert Browning 

"Prospice" is the Latin for "outlook," or literally, "Look forward." 
The poet here contemplates the end of life. It requires a mature 
mind to grasp the thought, and a pupil below the sixth or seventh 
grades should hardly attempt orally to interpret this poem. The 
poet would face death open-eyed and fighting. Note the play of the 
deepest and strongest emotions as the "Arch Fear" is first faced, 
then conquered, and blended, into a "peace out of pain," then the 
climax is reached in the expressed faith, trust, and adoration borne 
by the three closing lines. 

I 

Fear death? — to feel the fog in my throat, 

The mist in my face, 
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote 

I am nearing the place, 
The power of the night, the press of the storm, 

The post of the foe; 






Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 141 

Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, 

Yet the strong man must go ; 
For the journey is done and the summit attained, 

And the barriers fall, 
Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, 

The reward of it all. 
I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more, 

The best and the last ! 
I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and 
forebore, 

And bade me creep past. 

2 

No ! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, 

The heroes of old, 
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 

Of pain, darkness and cold. 
For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, 

The black minute's at end, 
And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, 

Shall dwindle, shall blend, 
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, 

Then a light, then thy breast, 
O thou soul of my soul ! I shall clasp thee again, 

And with God be the rest! 



142 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 



Where the West Begins 

Arthur Chapman 

This and the four other selections immediately following are 
laudatory of sections and States. The choosing of any of them for 
recitation will of course depend upon the speaker's sympathies. The 
poem that follows requires special study to determine the proper em- 
phasis. In the first place, the word or words that chiefly present 
each picture should be emphasized. And then, in the six repetitions 
of the line, "that's where the West begins," seek variety in emphasis. 
Thus, when this line is first reached, the obvious stress is on "that's" 
and "West"; the next time, say, on "West" only; then on "that's" 
only, ending the line with the rising inflection; and at the close 
distribute the emphasis so that no single word is specially stressed. 
The suggested variation is suggestive only, but the point is that in 
a repetition of words, phrases, or clauses, one should seek variety in 
emphasis. 



Out where the hand clasp's a little stronger, 
Out where a smile dwells a little longer, 

That's where the West begins. 
Out where the sun is a little brighter, 
Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter, 
Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter — 

That's where the West begins. 



Out where the skies are a trifle bluer, 
Out where friendship's a little truer, 

That's where the West begins. 
Out where a fresher breeze is blowing, 
Where there's laughter in every streamlet flowing, 
Where there's more of reaping and less of sowing — 

That's where the West begins. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 143 

3 

Out where the world is in the making, 

Where fewer hearts with despair are aching — 

That's where the West begins. 
Where there's more of singing and less of sighing, 
Where there's more of giving and less of buying, 
And a man makes friends without half trying — 

That's where the West begins. 

The West 

Douglass Malloch 

The suggestions made regarding the preceding poem largely apply 
also to this one. Especial care should be exercised in emphasizing the 
words that express the contrasts, such as "East," "West," etc. 

I 

Men look to the East for the dawning things, for 

the light of a rising sun, 
But they look to the West, to the crimson West, for 

the things that are done, are done. 
The eastward sun is a new-made hope from the 

dark of the night distilled; 
But the westward sun is a sunset sun, is the sun 

of a hope fulfilled! 

2 

So out of the East they have always come, the 

cradle that saw the birth 
Of all of the heart-warm hopes of man and all of 

the hopes of earth — 
For out of the East arose a Christ and out of the 

East has gleamed 
The dearest dream and the clearest dream that ever 

a prophet dreamed. 



144 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

3 

And into the waiting West they go with the dream- 
child of the East, 

And find the hopes that they hoped of old are a 
hundred- fold increased. 

For here in the East we dream our dreams of the 
things we hope to do, 

And here in the West, the crimson West, the dreams 
of the East come true! 

Land of the South 

Alexander Beaufort Meek 

The emotion of tender compassion which runs through this poem 
should be appreciated and expressed in musical tones charged with 
deep feeling. Note the slight change in emotion that appears in 
the last stanza, the climax at the close requiring strong, ringing 
tones. 

I 

Land of the South! — imperial land! — 

How proud thy mountains rise! — 
How sweet thy scenes on every hand! 

How fair thy covering skies ! 
But not for this, — oh, not for these, 

I love thy fields to roam, — 
Thou hast a dearer spell to me, — 

Thou art my native home! 

2 

The rivers roll their liquid wealth, 

Unequaled to the sea, — 
Thy hills and valleys bloom with health, 

And green with verdure be ! 



Winning Declamations-Hoiv to Speak Them 145 

But, not for thy proud ocean streams, 

Not for thine azure dome, — 
Sweet, sunny South! — I cling to thee, — 

Thou art my native home! 

3 
I've stood beneath Italia's clime, 

Beloved of tale and song, — 
On Helvyn's hills, proud and sublime, 

Where nature's wonders throng; 
By Tempe's classic sunlit streams, 

Where gods, of old, did roam, — 
But ne'er have found so fair a land 

As thou — my native home ! 

4 
And thou hast prouder glories, too, 

Than nature ever gave, — 
Peace sheds o'er thee her genial dew, 

And Freedom's pinions wave, — 
Fair Science flings her pearls around, 

Religion lifts her dome, — 
These, these endear thee to my heart, — 

My own, loved native home! 

5 

And "heaven's best gift to man" is thine, — 

God bless thy rosy girls ! — 
Like sylvan flowers, they sweetly shine, — 

Their hearts are pure as pearls! 
And grace and goodness circle them, 

Where'er their footsteps roam — 
How can I then, whilst loving them, 

Not love my native home! 



146 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

6 

Land of the South — imperial land! — 

Then here's a health to thee, — 
Long as thy mountain barriers stand, 

May'st thou be blest and free! — 
May dark dissension's banner ne'er 

Wave o'er thy fertile loam, — 
But should it come, there's one will die, 

To save his native home! 



The Call of Kansas 

Esther M. Clark 

In speaking this selection, almost any Western State could be sub- 
stituted for Kansas, if desired, for the poem might properly be 
entitled, "The Call of the Prairie." Notice that the author writes 
from a Southern seaport. This selection, with its home sentiment 
and appeal to the imagination, requires for delivery a moderate 
to slow rate and sustained sympathy and feeling. 

I 

Surfeited here with beauty, and the sensuous- 
sweet perfume 

Borne in from a thousand gardens and orchards of 
orange bloom; 

Awed by the silent mountains, stunned by the 
breakers' roar — 

The restless ocean pounding and tugging away at 
the shore — 

I lie on the warm sand beach and hear, above the 
cry' of the sea, 

The voice of the prairie, calling, calling me. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 147 

2 

Sweeter to me than the salt sea spray, the fragrance 

of summer rains ; 
Nearer my heart than these mighty hills are the 

windswept Kansas plains; 
Dearer the sight of a shy, wild rose by the road- 
side's dusty way 
Than all the splendor of poppy-fields, ablaze in the 

sun of May. 
Gay as the bold poinsettia is, and the burden of 

pepper trees, 
The sunflower, tawny and gold and brown, is richer, 

to me, than these. 
And rising ever above the song of the hoarse, 

insistent sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, calling me. 

3 

Kansas, beloved Mother, to-day in an alien land, 

Yours is the name I have idly traced with a bit 

of wood in the sand. 
The name that, sprung from a scornful lip, will 

make the warm blood start; 
The name that is graven, hard and deep, on the 

core of my loyal heart. 
O higher, clearer and stronger yet, than the boom 

of the savage sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, calling me. 



148 W inning Declamations-How to Speak Them 



Texas 



Henry Van Dyke 



In this poem, which was read at the dedication of Rice Institute, at 
Houston, Texas, October 12, 1912, Mr. Van Dyke has made use 
of an Indian legend to the effect that when the Indian hears the 
bees in the forest he knows that he must move on, for the whites 
are near. The blank verse, after the style of "Hiawatha," requires 
special care in so placing the emphasis and inflections as to avoid a 
6ing-song. 



All along the Brazos River, 
All along the Colorado, 
In the valleys and the lowlands 
Where the trees were tall and stately, 
In the rich and rolling meadows 
Where the grass was full of wildflowers, 
Came a humming and a buzzing, 
Came the murmur of a going 
To and fro among the treetops, 
Far and wide across the meadows, 
And the red men in their tepees 
Smoked their pipes of clay and listened. 
"What is this?" they asked in wonder; 
"Who can give the sound a meaning? 
Who can understand the language 
Of a going in the treetops?" 



Then the wisest of the Tejas 
Laid his pipe aside and answered: 
"O, my brothers, these are people, 
Very little, winged people. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 149 

Countless, busy, banded people, 
Coming humming through the timber! 
These are tribes of bees united 
By a single aim and purpose, 
To possess the Tejas' country, 
Gather harvest from the prairies, 
Store their wealth among the timber. 
These are hive and honeymakers, 
Sent by Manito to warn us 
That the white men now are coming, 
With their women and their children! 
Not the fiery filibusters 
Passing wildly in a moment, 
Like a flame across the prairies, 
Like a whirlwind through the forest, 
Leaving empty lands behind them! 
Not the Mexicans and Spaniards, 
Indolent and proud hidalgos, 
Dwelling in their haciendas, 
Dreaming, talking of to-morrow, 
While their cattle graze around them, 
And their fickle revolutions 
Change the rulers, not the people ! 
Other folks are these who follow 
Where the wild bees come to warn us; 
These are hive and honeymakers, 
These are busy, banded people, 
Roaming far to swarm and settle, 
Working every day for harvest, 
Fighting hard for peace and order, 
Worshiping as queens, their women, 



150 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Making homes and building cities, 
Full of riches and of trouble. 
All our hunting grounds must vanish, 
All our lodges fall before them, 
All our happy life of freedom, 
Fade away like smoke before them. 
Come, my brothers, strike your tepees, 
Call your women, load your ponies! 
Let us take the trail to westward, 
Where the plains are wide and open, 
Where the bison herds are gathered 
Waiting for our feathered arrows. 
We will live as lived our fathers, 
Gleaners of the gifts of nature, 
Hunters of the unkept cattle, 
Men whose women run to serve them. 
If the toiling bees pursue us, 
If the white men seek to tame us, 
We will fight them off and flee them, 
Break their hives and take their honey, 
Moving westward, ever westward, 
There to live as lived our fathers." 

3 

So the red men drove their ponies, 

With the tent poles trailing after, 
Out along the path to sunset, 
While along the river valleys 
Swarmed the wild bees, the forerunners. 
And the white men, close behind them, 
Men of mark from old Missouri, 
Men of daring from Kentucky, 



Winning D eclamations-H ow to Speak Them 151 

Tennessee, Louisiana, 
Men of many States and races, 
Bringing wives and children with them, 
Followed up the wooded valleys, 
Spread across the rolling prairies, 
Raising homes and reaping harvests. 
Rude the toil that tried their patience, 
Fierce the fights that proved their courage, 
Rough the stone and tough the timber 
Out of which they built their order! 
Yet they never failed nor faltered, 
And the instinct of their swarming 
Made them one and kept them working, 
Till their toil was crowned with triumph, 
And the country of the Tejas 
Was the fertile land of Texas. 



The Eagle's Song 

Richard Mansfield 

The sweep of the thought in this poem, embracing our Revolu- 
tionary and Civil Wars, can hardly be followed by a pupil short 
of the upper grades. Note that each of the last three stanzas denotes 
a marked transition, to be indicated by proper pauses in each case. 

I 

The lioness whelped, and the sturdy cub 

Was seized by an eagle and carried up, 

And homed for a while in an eagle's nest. 

And slept for a while on an eagle's breast; 

And the eagle taught it the eagle's song: 

"To be staunch, and valiant, and free, and strong I" 



152 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

2 

The lion whelp sprang from the eyrie nest, 
From the lofty crag where the queen birds rest; 
He fought the king on the spreading plain, 
And drove him back o'er the foaming main. 
He held the land as a thrifty chief, 
And reared his cattle, and reaped his sheaf, 
Nor sought the help of a foreign hand, 
Yet welcomed all to his own free land! 

3 
Two were the sons that the country bore 

To the Northern lakes and the Southern shore; 

And Chivalry dwelt with the Southern son, 

And Industry lived with the Northern one. 

Tears for the time when they broke and fought! 

Tears was the price of the union wrought! 

And the land was red in a sea of blood, 

Where brother for brother had swelled the flood ! 

4 
And now that the two are one again, 
Behold on their shield the word "Refrain !" 
And the lion cubs twain sing the eagle's song: 
"To be staunch, and valiant, and free, and strong !" 
For the eagle's beak, and the lion's paw, 
And the lion's fangs, and the eagle's claw, 
And the eagle's swoop, and the lion's might, 
And the lion's leap, and the eagle's sight, 
Shall guard the flag with the word "Refrain!" 
Now that the two are one again! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 153 

If 

Rudyard Kipling 

The thought of this poem is on-looking throughout to the conclu- 
sion reached in the last two lines of the last stanza. Until these 
two lines are reached, therefore, the rising inflection should be 
maintained, including the last lines of all stanzas but the last. 

I 

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you ; 
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you; 

But make allowance for their doubting, too; 
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies; 
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, 

And yet don't look too good nor talk too wise; 

2 
If you can dream and not make dreams your 
master ; 
If you can think and not make thoughts your 
aim; 
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 

And treat impostors just the same; 
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken 
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools ; 
Or, watch the things you gave your life to broken 
And stoop and build them up with worn-out 
tools ; 

3 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings, 

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 



154 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

And lose, and start again at your beginnings 
And never breathe a word about your loss ; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
To serve your turn long after they are gone, 

And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
Except the will which says to them, "Hold on"; 

4 
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue; 

Or walk with kings, nor lose your common touch ; 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 

If all men count with you, but none too much; 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, 
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it, 

And — which is more — you'll be a Man, my son. 



Crossing the Bar 

Alfred Tennyson 

The inspiration of this poem came to Tennyson one evening while 
he was being rowed to shore in a harbor on the coast of England. 
Being contemplative, the rate should be slow. Note that the thought 
is incomplete at the end of stanza i, hence the rising inflection is 
required. The same remark might be applied to the close of stanza 
3. A note of faith and trust runs through the whole poem, the 
climax being reached in the last stanza, which has frequently been 
quoted. 

I 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me ! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 

When I put out to sea, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 155 

2 
But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 

Turns again home. 

3 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell, 

When I embark; 

4 
For though from out our bourne of Time and 
Place 
The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crossed the bar. 



156 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Recessional 

Rudyard Kipling 

The occasion of this poem was the celebration in England of the 
fiftieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign, known as the "Queen's 
Jubilee." Representatives from all parts of the British Empire 
assembled at London in 1897 to do honor to the occasion. David 
Starr Jordan calls this poem "the noblest hymn of the century." 
As a general rule — exceptions being found in stanzas 2 and 3 — the 
rising inflection should be maintained in each stanza until the prayer, 
or direct invocation, is reached in the last two lines. The falling 
inflection should be used on "yet" (for the purpose of emphasis), 
also on "forget" in each instance. Try the effect of placing very 
strong emphasis on the first "forget," then make the clause that 
follows an echo of the first, with less pronounced emphasis on any 
one word. Note that special emphasis is required on "Thee," in 
stanzas 4 and 5. The "reeking tube and iron shard" (line 2, 
stanza 5) refer to cannon and battleships, the latter being much 
in evidence upon the occasion which inspired this poem. 

I 

God of our fathers, known of old — 
Lord of our far-flung battle-line — 

Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold 
Dominion over palm and pine — 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 

Lest we forget — lest we forget! 

2 

The tumult and the shouting dies — 
The captains and the kings depart — 

Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice, 
An humble and a contrite heart. 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 

Lest we forget — lest we forget! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 157 

3 

Far-called our navies melt away — 

On dune and headland sinks the fire — 
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday 

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! 
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, 
Lest we forget — lest we forget ! 

4 
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose 

Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe — 
Such boasting as the Gentiles use, 

Or lesser breeds without the Law — 
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget — lest we forget ! 

5 , 
For heathen heart that puts her trust 

In reeking tube and iron shard 
All valiant dust that builds on dust, 

And guarding calls not Thee to guard — 
For frantic boast and foolish word, 
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord! 



158 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Power of Music 
William Shakespeare 

The following is an excerpt from the love scene between Lorenzo 
and Jessica, in The Merchant of Venice. The scene must be recalled 
as one recites the lines: the lovers talking in the moonlight, while 
from a nearby house is heard sweet music. Musical tones are of 
course required to echo the thought and sentiment. The rate is 
generally slow, but note how it should be varied in stanza 2, follow- 
ing a marked transition. Note also what a fine opportunity for ex- 
pressing a climax is offered in the three lines (stanza 3) ending 
with "spoils." Begin in a low key, then rise slightly in key at each 
succeeding line, with a corresponding increase in force until the 
climax is reached. 



How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! 

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music 

Creep in our ears ; soft stillness, and the night, 

Become the touches of sweet harmony. 

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven 

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 

But in his motion like an angel sings, 

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim : 

Such harmony is in immortal souls; 

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. . . . 



For do but note a wild and wanton herd, 
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, 
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing 

loud, 
Which is the hot condition of their blood; 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 159 

If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, 
Or any air of music touch their ears, 
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, 
Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze, 
By the sweet power of music. 

3 

Therefore, the poet, 

Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and 

floods ; 

Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, 

But music for the time doth change his nature; 

The man that hath no music in himself, 

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; 

The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 

And his affections dark as Erebus. 

Let no such man be trusted. 

Apple Blossoms 

William Wesley Martin 

Have you seen an apple orchard in the spring? Then you can 
appreciate the beauty and charm of this rare poem. In order to 
avoid a sing-song in delivery, vary the emphasis and inflection as 
you repeat "in the spring," and don't pause before the last lines of 
stanzas i, 3, and 5. For the same purpose, as well as to bring out 
the thought, study carefully for the proper placing of emphasis. 
Thus in stanza 1, emphasize "apple orchard" and "English"; in 
stanza 2, "plucked"; in stanza 3, "walked"; in stanza 4, "bridal" and 
"everywhere"; in stanza 5, "not" and "know." If these words be 
noted for primary emphasis, other words will naturally receive due 
secondary emphasis. 

I 

Have you seen an apple orchard in the spring? 
In the spring? 



160 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

An English apple orchard in the spring? 
When the spreading trees are hoary 
With their wealth of promised glory, 
And the mavis pipes his story 
In the spring! 

2 

Have you plucked the apple blossoms in the spring ? 

In the spring? 
And caught their subtle odors in the spring? 
Pink buds bursting at the light, 
Crumpled petals baby-white, 
Just to touch them a delight! 
In the spring! 

3 
Have you walked beneath the blossoms in the 

spring ? 

In the spring? 

Beneath the apple blossoms in the spring? 

When the pink cascades were falling, 

And the silver brooklets brawling, 

And the cuckoo bird is calling 

In the spring! 

4 
Have you ever seen a merry bridal in the spring? 

In the spring? 

In an English apple country in the spring? 

When the bride and maidens wear 

Apple blossoms in their hair; 

Apple blossoms everywhere, 

In the spring! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 161 

5 
If you have not then you know not, in the spring, 

In the spring, 

Half the color, beauty, wonder of the spring. 

No sight can I remember, 

Half so precious, half so tender, 

As the apple blossoms render 

In the spring! 

Gradatim 

Josiah Gilbert Holland 

Clear, ringing tones and moderate rate are best suited to the 
delivery of this poem. Aim so to place the emphasis as to bring 
out the thought, and note that several lines in this poem should be 
passed without pausing. 

Heaven is not reached by a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 

And we mount to its summit, round by round. 

I count this thing to be grandly true, 
That a noble deed is a step toward God, 
Lifting the soul from the common clod 

To a purer air and a fairer view. 

We rise by the things that are under our feet, 
By what we have mastered of good or gain ; 
By the pride deposed, or the passion slain, 

And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. 

We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust, 
When the morning calls to life and light; 
But our hearts grow weary, and ere the night 

Our lives are trailing the sordid dust. 



162 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we pray; 

And we think that we mount the air on wings 
Beyond the recall of earthly things, 

While our feet still cling to the heavy clay. 

Wings are for angels, but feet for men! 

We may borrow the wings to find the way; 

We may hope, and resolve, and aspire, and pray, 
But our feet must rise or we fall again. 

Only in dreams is a ladder thrown 

From the weary earth to the sapphire walls; 
But the dreams depart and the ladder falls, 

And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone. 

Heaven is not reached at a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 

And we mount to its summit round by round. 



The Blue and the Gray 

Francis M. Finch 

As early as 1867, following our Civil War, the women of Columbus, 
Miss., on Decoration Day placed flowers impartially upon the graves 
of Confederate and Union soldiers. This incident inspired the 
following poem. The author was a resident of Ithaca, X. Y., and 
for a long time was judge in the highest court of his native state. 
An appreciation of the meaning of this poem, and of the beauty of 
its sentiment and its expression, will result in sympathetic, musical 
tones, with due emphatic pauses and moderate rate. 

By the flow of the inland river, 
Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 163 

Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver, 
Asleep are the ranks of the dead — 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Under the one, the Blue; 
Under the other, the Gray. 

These, in the robings of glory; 

Those, in the gloom of defeat; 
All, with the battle-blood gory, 
In the dusk of eternity meet — 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Under the laurel the Blue; 
Under the willow, the Gray. 

From the silence of sorrowful hours, 

The desolute mourners go, 
Lovingly laden with flowers, 

Alike for the friend and the foe. — 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Under the roses, the Blue; 
Under the lilies, the Gray. 

So, with an equal splendor, 

The morning sun-rays fall, 
With a touch impartially tender, 

On the blossoms blooming for all. — 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Broidered with gold, the Blue; 
Mellowed with gold, the Gray. 



164 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

So, when the summer calleth, 
On forest and field of grain 
With an equal murmur falleth 
The cooling drip of the rain: 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Wet with the rain, the Blue, 
Wet with the rain, the Gray. 

Sadly, but not with upbraiding, 
The generous deed was done; 
In the storm of the years that are fading 
No braver battle was won. — 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Under the blossoms, the Blue; 
Under the garlands, the Gray. 

No more shall the war cry sever, 

Or the winding rivers be red; 

They banish our anger forever, 

When they laurel the graves of our dead: 

Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Love and tears, for the Blue, 
Tears and love, for the Gray. 






Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 165 

The House by the Side of the Road 

Sam Walter Ross 

Aside from the standard requirement of thought-grasp and earnest- 
ness, these two suggestions will suffice as to the delivery of this 
oft-quoted poem: (i) pass the lines without pausing that do not re- 
quire a pause; (2) vary the emphasis on the phrases repeated in the 
last two lines of the stanzas. 

I 

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 

In the peace of their self-content; 
There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, 

In a fellowless firmament; 
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 

Where highways never ran; 
But let me live by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 



Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 

Where the race of men go by, 
The men who are good and the men who are bad, 

As good and as bad as I. 
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's ban; 
Let me live in a house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 



I see from my house by the side of the road, 
By the side of the highway of life, 

The men who press with the ardor of hope, 
The men who are faint with the strife. 



166 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

But I turn not away from their smiles nor their 
tears, 

Both parts of an infinite plan; 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

4 
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead 

And mountains of wearisome height; 
That the road passes on through the long afternoon 

And stretches away to the night. 
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice, 

And weep with strangers that moan, 
Nor live in my house by the side of the road 

Like a man who dwells alone. 

5 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

Where the race of men go by; 
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they 
are strong, 

Wise, foolish — so am I. 
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's ban? 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 167 

The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers 

Felicia Hemans 

Full, round, ringing tones, with a generally low key and moderate 
rate are required in rendering this well-known poem. Note also 
several lines which require no pause at the end. 

I 

The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods, against a stormy sky, 

Their giant branches tossed; 



And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 



Not as the conqueror comes, 
They, the true-hearted, came: 

Not with the roll of the stirring drums, 
And the trumpet that sings of fame; 



Not as the flying come, 

In silence and in fear, — 
They shook the depths of the desert's gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 



Amidst the storm they sang, 
And the stars heard, and the sea; 



168 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
To the anthem of the free! 

6 

The ocean-eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam, 
And the rocking pines of the forest roared; 

This was their welcome home ! 

7 
There were men with hoary hair 

Amidst that pilgrim-band; 

Why had they come to wither there, 

Away from their childhood's land? 

8 
There was woman's fearless eye, 

Lit by her deep love's truth; 
There was manhood's brow, serenely high, 

And the fiery heart of youth. 

9 
What sought they thus afar? 

Bright jewels of the mine? 

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? — 

They sought a faith's pure shrine! 

io 
Aye, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod ! 
They have left unstained what there they found — 

Freedom to worship God! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 169 

The Palmetto and the Pine 

Virginia L. French 

Generally speaking, the words of this poem should be delivered with 
the impact and force of a bullet from a gun. Dynamic, ringing 
tones — with the "glottis stroke" — are required throughout. 

I 

They planted them together — our gallant sires of 

old— 
Though one was crowned with crystal snow and 

one with solar gold. 
They planted them together, — on the world's 

majestic height; 
At Saratoga's deathless charge ; at Eutah's stubborn 

fight ; 
At midnight on the dark redoubt, 'mid plunging 

shot and shell; 
At noontide, gasping in the crush of battle's bloody 

swell. 
With gory hands and reeking brows, amid the 

mighty fray 
Which surged and swelled around them on that 

memorable day 
When they planted Independence as a symbol and 

a sign, 
They struck deep soil, and planted the palmetto and 

the pine. 



They planted them together, — by the river of the 

years, — 
Watered with our fathers' hearts' blood, watered 

with our mothers' tears; 



170 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

In the strong, rich soil of freedom, with a bounteous 

benison 
From their prophet, priest and pioneer — our father, 

Washington ! 
Above them floated echoes of the ruin and the 

wreck, 
Like "drums that beat at Louisburg and thundered 

at Quebec" ; 
But the old lights sank in darkness as the new stars 

rose to shine 
O'er those emblems of the sections, the palmetto 

and the pine.' 

3 
And we'll plant them still together — for 'tis yet the 

self-same soil 
Our fathers' valor won for us by victory and toil; 
On Florida's fair everglades, by bold Ontario's 

flood, — 
And through them send electric life, as leaps the 

kindred blood! 
For thus it is they taught us who for freedom lived 

and died, — 
The Eternal's law of justice must and shall be 

justified, 
That God has joined together, by a fiat all divine, 
The destinies of dwellers 'neath the palm-tree and 

the pine. 

4 
God plant them still together! Let them flourish 

side by side, 

In the halls of our Centennial, mailed in more 

than marble pride! 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them iji 

With kindly deeds and noble names we'll grave 

them o'er and o'er 
With brave historic legends of the glorious days 

of yore; 
While the clear, exultant chorus, rising from united 

bands, 
The echo of our triumph peals to earth's remotest 

lands ; 
While "faith, fraternity, and love" shall joyfully 

entwine 
Around our chosen emblems, the palmetto and the 

pine. 



A Toast 

Marion Couthouy Smith 

"All's well with the world" is the theme of this poem, and ii this 
sentiment is present during the delivery, you will have an animated 
facial expression, beaming with good cheer, and the thought and 
sentiment will be voiced in ringing, joyous tones. 

Here's to the old Earth, and here's to all that's in 

her, 
To the soil of her, and the toil of her, and the 

valiant souls that win her; 
To the hope she holds, and the gift she grants, her 

hazards and her prizes, 
To the face of her, and the grace of her, and all her 

swift surprises. 

Here's to her mighty dawns, with rose and golden 

splendor ; 
To the heights of her, and the nights of her, her 

springs and their surrender; 



172 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Her storms and her frozen seas, and the mystic 

stars above her, 
The fear of her, and the cheer of her, and all the 

brave that love her. 

Here's to her valleys warm, with their little homes 
to cherish; 

The gleam of her, and the dream of her, and the 
loves that flower and perish; 

To her cities rich and gray, with their stern life- 
chorus ringing, 

The noise of her, and the joys of her, and the 
sighs beneath the singing. 

Here's to her endless youth, her deaths and her 

reviving ; 
The soul of her, and the goal of her, that keeps 

her ever striving; 
Her little smiling flowers, and her comforting 

grass and clover, 
And the rest of her on the breast of her when 

striving days are over. 

Here's to the old Earth, with all her countless 

chances ; 
The heart of her, and the art of her, her frowns 

and tender glances; 
With all her dear familiar ways that held us from 

the starting; 
Long might to her ! And good night to her, when 

the hour is struck for parting. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 173 

Abou Ben Adhem 

Leigh Hunt 

This well-known poem increases in popularity with the ever steady 
advancement of thg "Brotherhood of Man" sentiment. The rate of 
delivery should be slow, the transitions indicated by due pauses and 
changes (particularly where the angel appears and converses with 
Ben Adhem), and the climax at the close should be brought out in 
full, round tones and strong force. 

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw, within the moonlight of his room, 
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold. 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the presence in the room he said, 
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head, 
And with a look made all of sweet accord 
Answer'd, "The names of those who love the Lord." 
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," 
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
But cheerily still, and said, "I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men." 
The angel wrote and vanish'd. The next night 
It came again with a great wakening light 
And show'd the names whom love of God had 

bless'd, 
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 



174 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

On the Death of David Crockett 

T. F. Smith 

Review the history of David Crockett's career, especially the part 
he played in the defense of the Alamo, and you can then the better 
enter into the spirit of this poem. Although there is a transition 
beginning at stanza 3, requiring a pause and change, the whole 
poem requires elevated, intense feeling and strong force. 

I 

Heard ye that sigh, that melancholy wail 
Borne sadly on by evening's fitful gale, 
Like some lone whisper from the silent tomb, 
Shrouding a nation with its saddening gloom? 
It comes from Texas, like a dying knell, 
Where gloriously the immortal Crockett fell. 

2 

Like some tall giant on the field of blood, 
Undaunted 'midst the gallant slain he stood, 
He knew no fear — in danger's darkful storm 
He boldly, proudly, reared his warrior form. 
His cause — the cause of freedom and the free, 
His glorious watchword — Death or Liberty. 

3 

Sleep, mighty warrior, in thy tombless bed, 

The bravest hero of the valiant dead! 
Thy name is cherished in a nation's pride, 
Whose tears for their sad fate can ne'er be dried. 
Some sculptured marble yet shall rise and tell 
How Crockett with his brave companions fell. 




Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 175 

4 
Freedom shall light her torch above thy tomb, 

And freemen write the story of thy doom, 

Tyrants shall tremble at thy honored name, 

And blush to read the record of thy fame; 

While millions at their annual jubilee, 

Shall boast a Crockett lost — a nation free! 

The Thinker 

Berton Braley 

This is relatively more an appeal to the intellect than to the 
emotions, and the proper placing of emphasis is most essential to 
an effective rendition. Accompanied by moderate rate and due 
pausing, stress particularly the words that bear the burden of the 
thought,— such as "Thought," "Thinker," "Knows," "Mind," 
"Brain," "Schemer," "Dreamer." 

I 

Back of the beating hammer 

By which the steel is wrought, 
Back of the workshop's clamor 

The seeker may find the Thought, 
The Thought that is ever master 

Of iron and steam and steel, 
That rises above disaster 

And tramples it under heel! 

2 

The drudge may fret and tinker 

Or labor with lusty blows, 
But back of him stands the Thinker, 

The clear-eyed man who Knows; 
For into each plow or saber, 

Each piece and part and whole, 



176 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Must go the Brains of Labor, 
Which gives the work a soul ! 

3 

Back of the motors humming, 

Back of the belts that sing, 
Back of the hammers drumming, 

Back of the cranes that swing, 
There is the eye which scans them 

Watching through stress and strain, 
There is the Mind which plans them — •. 

Back of the brawn, the Brain! 

4 
Might of the roaring boiler, 

Force of the engine's thrust, 
Strength of the sweating toiler, 

Greatly in these we trust. 
But back of them stands the Schemer, 

The Thinker who drives things through ; 
Back of the Job — the Dreamer 

Who's making the dream come true! 

A Day in June 

James Russell Lowell 

The "effusive" tone, resulting from a sustained enthusiasm, is best 
suited to the rendition of this poem, which has long been a favorite 
for recitation. Transitions of wide intervals, accompanied by a 
change in the meter, occur at the beginning of each stanza. These 
should be denoted in each instance by a long pause and some change 
in the style of delivery. 

I 

What is so rare as a day in June? 
Then if ever come perfect days; 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them IJJ 

Then heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays; 
Whether we look or whether we listen, 
We hear life murmur or see it glisten; 
Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers 
And, grasping blindly above it for light, 

Climbs to a soul in grass and in flowers; 
The flush of life may well be seen 

Thrilling back over hills and valleys ; 
The cowslip startles in meadows green, 

The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, 
And there's never a leaf or a blade too mean 

To be some happy creature's palace; 
The little bird sits at his door in the sun, 

Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 
And lets his illumined being o'errun 
With the deluge of summer it receives ; 
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, 
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings ; 
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest, — 
In the nice ear of Nature, which song is the best? 

2 
Now is the high-tide of the year, 

And whatever of life hath ebbed away 
Comes flooding back, with a ripply cheer, 

Into every bare inlet and creek and bay ; 
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, 
We are happy now because God so wills it; 
No matter how barren the past may have been, 
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green; 



178 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 

How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell ; 

We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing 

That skies are clear and grass is growing; 

The breeze comes whispering in our ear, 

That dandelions are blossoming near, 

That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing, 

That the river is bluer than the sky, 

That the robin is plastering his house hard by, 

And if the breeze kept the good news back, 

For other couriers we should not lack; 

We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing, — 

And hark ! how clear bold chanticleer, 

Warmed with the new wine of the year, 

Tells all in his lusty crowing ! 

3 

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how ; 

Everything is happy now, 
Everything is upward striving; 

'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true, 

As for grass to be green or skies to be blue, — 
'Tis the natural way of living; 
Who knows whither the clouds have fled? 

In the unscarred heavens they leave no wake, 
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, 

The heart forgets its sorrow and ache; 
The soul partakes of the season's youth, 

And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe 
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth, 

Like burnt-out craters healed with snow. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 179 

Right's Security 

Paul Laurence Dunbar 

Earnestness, strength, and directness should distinguish the ren- 
dition of this poem. Note the climactic construction of the whole: 
the last stanza is the strongest of all, and the last line the strongest 
one in that stanza. 

I 

What if the wind do howl without, 
And turn the creaking weather-vane; 
What if the arrows of the rain 
Do beat against the window-pane? 
Art thou not armored strong and fast 
Against the sallies of the blast? 
Art thou not sheltered safe and well 
Against the flood's insistent swell ? 

2 

What boots it, that thou stand'st alone, 
And laughest in the battle's face 
When all the weak have fled the place 
And let their feet and fears keep pace? 
Thou wavest still thine ensign high, 
And shoutest thy loud battle-cry; 
Higher than e'er the tempest roared, 
It cleaves the silence like a sword. 

3 

Right arms and armors, too, that man 

Who will not compromise with wrong; 
Though single, he must front the throng 
And wage the battle hard and long. 



180 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Minorities, since time began, 

Have shown the better side of man; 

And often in the lists of time 

One man has made a cause sublime! 



Columbus 

Joaquin Miller 

This is properly considered one of the great distinctively American 
pcems. Note the determination and faith of the "Brave Adm'r'l" as 
shown in "Sail on!" etc., and emphasize it by contrasting it with the 
fear and doubt in the words of the "stout mate." Use clear, ringing 
tones on "Sail on!" Note especially the climax in the last stanza, 
which should be given with large volume and strong force. 

I 

Behind him lay the gray Azores, 

Behind the Gates of Hercules; 
Before him not the ghost of shores, 

Before him only shoreless seas. 
The good mate said : "Now must w T e pray, 

For lo! the very stars are gone. 
Brave Adm'r'l, speak; what shall I say?" 

"Why, say: 'Sail on! sail on! sail on!' 



a 



» 



2 

"My men grow mutinous day by day; 

My men grow ghastly wan and weak.' 
The stout mate thought of home ; a spray 

Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 
"What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say, 

If we sight naught but seas at dawn?" 
"Why, you shall say at break of day: 

'Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 181 

3 

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, 

Until at last the blanched mate said: 
"Why, now not even God would know 

Should I and all my men fall dead. 
These very winds forget their way, 

For God from these dread seas is gone. 
Now speak, brave AdmVl, and say-—" 

He said: "Sail on! and on!" 

4 
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: 

"This mad sea shows his teeth to-night 
He curls his lip, he lies in wait 

With lifted teeth, as if to bite ! 
Brave AdmVl, say but one good word : 

What shall we do when hope is gone?" 
The words leapt like a leaping sword : 

"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!" 

5 
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, 

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
Of all dark nights! And then a speck — 

A light! a light! a light! a light! 
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! 

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. 
He gained a world ; he gave that world 

Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!" 



182 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Day is Done 

Henry W . Longfellow 

The mood of this poem must first be appreciated before adequate 
oral interpretation will be possible. Note that the first three 
stanzas are description tinged with "a feeling of sadness and long- 
ing." Stanzas 4 to 8, inclusive, call for a poem to be read, with a 
description of the kind desired. And the last three stanzas give 
the effect of such a poem. At the places noted, slight transitions 
occur, but there are no marked changes or climaxes. The tone is 
quiet and pensive throughout, and the rendition most needs a sym- 
pathetic quality of voice, the tones colored by the appropriate 
emotion, so that you "lend to the rhyme of the poem the beauty of 
thy voice." 

I 

The day is done, and the darkness 

Falls from the wings of Night, 
As a feather is wafted downward 

From an eagle in his flight. 

2 

I see the lights of the village 

Gleam through the rain and the mist, 

And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me, 
That my soul cannot resist: 

3 

A feeling of sadness and longing, 

That is not akin to pain, 
And resembles sorrow only 
As the mist resembles the rain. 

4 
Come, read to me some poem, 

Some simple and heartfelt lay, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 183 

That shall soothe this restless feeling, 
And banish the thoughts of day. 

5 

Not from the grand old masters, 

Not from the bards sublime, 
Whose distant footsteps echo 
Through the corridors of Time, 

6 

For, like strains of martial music, 

Their mighty thoughts suggest 
Life's endless toil and endeavor, — 

And to-night I long for rest. 

7 
Read from some humbler poet, 

Whose songs gushed from his heart, 

As showers from the clouds of summer, 

Or tears from the eyelids start. 

8 

Who through long days of labor, 

And nights devoid of ease, 
Still heard in his soul the music 

Of wonderful melodies. 

9 

Such songs have power to quiet 

The restless pulse of care, 
And come like the benediction 
That follows after prayer. 



184 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

10 

Then read from the treasured volume 

The poem of thy choice, 
And lend to the theme of the poet 

The beauty of thy voice. 

11 

And the night shall be filled with music, 
And the cares that infest the day 

Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, 
And as silently steal away. 



The Cross of Honor 

Virginia Fisher Harris 

The "Cross of Honor" is a small bronze medal worn by ex-Con- 
federate soldiers, and corresponding to the round bronze button 
worn by ex-Union soldiers. This poem is a eulogy of Confederate 
veterans and their deeds. The prevailing emotion is mingled praise 
and pathos, which should be sustained throughout, with a slight 
change at the opening of each paragraph. Note that several lines 
in this poem should be passed without pausing. 

I 

No crown of laurel, wreath of bay, 
On conquering brow to proudly lay, 
Had vanquished South her sons to give. 
Their diadems are deeds that live. 
Time soothed the grief but not the pride 
For those who had so nobly died. 
Loving remembrance of gain and loss 
Are crusted deep in "Honor's Cross, 
Though only a bit of bronze. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 185 

2 

Now daisies dot the emerald plains 
That once were red with bloody stains, 
Crumbled to dust the flags that waved 
O'er fearless hearts that danger braved. 
Corroding rust the keen blade dims, 
Silent the stirring battle hymns. 
In trenched graves or grass-grown mounds, 
Or yet in life with scars and wounds, 
This gray-garbed mighty Southern host 
That dauntless stood at Honor's post 
Holds living shrines in Southern hearts, 
And name and fame that ruthless darts 
Can tarnish never. 

3 

Cross of Honor, by Valor won — 

By deeds heroic nobly done, — 
On veterans' breasts proudly lay, 
Mute story of forgetless day. 
Bit of bronze, — no jeweled light 
Flashes from its surface bright, 
But oh, the story that it tells, 
And how the heart exultant swells. 
Thy gems are those of deathless fame, 
That burn and glow with steady flame. 
Honor, Courage, Chivalric Truth, 
A stainless name above reproof. 
These are thy gems, O Southern son, 
By steadfast courage bravely won. 
Proudly wear it, stainless bear it, 
This Cross of Honor. 



186 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Annabel Lee 

Edgar Allan Poe 

Ringing, musical tones, in many instances interblending, are best 
for rendering this selection. The ideas to be emphasized often come 
in pairs; for instance, "to love and be loved"; "I was a child and 
she was a child," "chilling and killing," "older — wiser," "in heaven 
above nor the demons down under." Be sure to note the slight 
difference in most of the repetitions. 

It was many and many a year ago, 

In a kingdom by the sea, 
That a maiden there lived whom you may know 

By the name of Annabel Lee; 
And this maiden she lived with no other thought 

Than to love and be loved by me. 

I was a child and she was a child, 

In this kingdom by the sea: 
But we loved with a love that was more than love — 

I and my Annabel Lee; 
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven 

Coveted her and me. 

And this was the reason that, long ago, 

In this kingdom by the sea, 
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling 

My beautiful Annabel Lee ; 
So that her highborn kinsman came 

And bore her away from me, 
To shut her up in a sepulcher 

In this kingdom by the sea. 



Winning Declamations-Hotv to Speak Them 187 

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, 

Went envying her and me; 
Yes, — that was the reason (as all men know, 

In this kingdom by the sea) 
That the wind came out of the cloud by night, 

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love 

Of those who were older than we, — 

Of many far wiser than we ; — 
And neither the angels in heaven above 

Nor the demons down under the sea 
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 

For the moon never beams without bringing me 
dreams 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side 
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, 
In her sepulcher there by the sea, 
In her tomb by the sounding sea. 



1 88 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Thou, Too, Sail On! 

Henry W. Longfellow 

Well-rounded, orotund tones, especially for the third stanza, 
should be used in rendering this selection. Remember it is the Ship 
of State about which you are speaking. Develop the climax in stanza 
3 with combined volume and force, and notice especially the arrange- 
ment of the words in the last four lines; the last "are all with thee" 
is anticlimactic, — an echo of the preceding. 

I 

Sail forth into the sea, O ship ! 

Through wind and wave, right onward steer! 

The moistened eye, the trembling lip, 

Are not the signs of doubt or fear. 

2 

Sail forth into the sea of life, 
O gentle, loving, trusting wife, 
And safe from all adversity 
Upon the bosom of that sea 
Thy comings and thy goings be I 
For gentleness and love and trust 
Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; 
And in the wreck of noble lives 
Something immortal still suvives! 

3 
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! 

Humanity with all its fears, 

With all the hopes of future years, 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 

We know what Master laid thy keel, 

What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 189 

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 

What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 

In what a forge and what a heat 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

'Tis of the wave and not the rock ; 

'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 

And not a rent made by the gale ! 

In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee, — are all with thee ! 

The Defense of the Alamo 

Joaquin Miller 

In order to give this poem with keener appreciation, review this in- 
cident in Texas history by supplementary reading. Strong, ringing 
tones are required throughout, and in many places the words should 
be uttered in the quick, dynamic, staccato style known as "explosive" 
tones. 

I 

Santa Anna came storming, as a storm might 

come; 
I There was rumble of cannon; there was rattle 

of blade ; 
There was cavalry, infantry, bugle, and drum, — 

Full seven thousand, in pomp and parade, 
The chivalry, flower of Mexico; 
And a gaunt two hundred in the Alamo ! 



190 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

2 

And thirty lay sick, and some were shot through; 
For the siege had been bitter, and bloody, and 
long. 
"Surrender, or die !" — "Men, what will you do ?" 
And Travis, great Travis, drew sword, quick 
and strong; 
Drew a line at his feet ... "Will you come? 

Will you go? 
I die with my wounded, in the Alamo.'' 

3 

Then Bowie gasped, "Lead me over that line!" 

Then Crockett, one hand to the sick, one hand to 
his gun, 
Crossed with him; then never a word or a sign 

Till all, sick or well, all, all save but one, 
One man. Then a woman stepped, praying, and 

slow 
Across; to die at her post in the Alamo. 

4 
Then that one coward fled, in the night, in that 

night 
When all men silently prayed and thought 
Of home; of to-morrow; of God and the right, 
Till dawn: and with dawn came Travis's cannon 
shot, 
In answer to insolent Mexico, 
From the old bell-tower of the Alamo. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 191 

5 

Then came Santa Anna; a crescent of flame! 

Then the red "escalade"; then the fight hand to 
hand; 
Such an unequal fight as never had name 
Since the Persian hordes butchered that doomed 
Spartan band. 
All day, — all day and all night, and the morning? 

so slow 
Through the battle smoke mantling the Alamo. 

6 

Now silence! Such silence! Two thousand lay 
dead 

In a crescent outside ! And within ? Not a breath 
Save the gasp of a woman, with gory gashed head, 

All alone, all alone there, waiting for death; 
And she but a nurse. Yet when shall we know 
Another like this of the Alamo? 

7 
Shout "Victory, victory, victory ho!" 

I say 'tis not always to the hosts that win; 
I say that the victory, high or low, 

Is given the hero who grapples with sin, 
Or legion or single; just asking to know 
When duty fronts death in his Alamo. 



192 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Solitude 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

The emphasis by contrasts should be noted and expressed in ren- 
dering this poem, which has long been a favorite for recitation. 
Note that the fifth and seventh lines of stanza 3 should be passed 
without pausing. 

I 

Laugh, and the world laughs with you ; 

Weep, and you weep alone, 
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, 

But has trouble enough of its own. 

Sing, and the hills will answer; 

Sigh, it is lost on the air. 
The echoes bound to a joyful sound, 

But shrink from voicing care. 

2 
Rejoice, and men will seek you; 

Grieve, and they turn and go. 
They want full measure of all your pleasure, 

But they do not need your woe. 
Be glad, and your friends are many; 

Be sad, and you lose them all. 
There are none to decline your nectared wine, 

But alone you must drink life's gall. 

3 

Feast, and your halls are crowded; 

Fast, and the world goes by 
Succeed and give, and it helps you live, 
But no man can help you die. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 193 

There is room in the halls of pleasure 

For a long and lordly train, 
But one by one we must all file on 

[Through the narrow aisles of pain. 



Nightfall 
Emma Gertrude White 

Loud, rasping tones would of course be unfitted to voice the 
sensuous beauty of this poem. Note that many of the lines require 
no pause at the end. "Katy" (first line of stanza 3) refers, of 
course, to the katydid mentioned in the first line of stanza 1. 

I 

In the maple, chants the katydid 

A measure shrill and thin. 
In the dusty grass, a cricket scrapes 

His cheerful violin. 
Across the street, my neighbor 

To her baby, softly sings, 
And the sound is wafted to me 

Where my sea-grass hammock swings. 

2 

And the sky, a gray blue curtain, 

Stretches coldly overhead; 
From the hill, a distant street-lamp 

Sends a gleam of dusky red. 
While the stars shine forth but dimly 

(Still the gentle mother sings) ; 
And their radiance soft is falling 

Where my sea-gras? hammock swings. 



194 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

3 

More insistent waxes Katy, ■ 

High above the cricket's trill ; 
Brighter grow the stars far shining 

And the sky grows bluer still. 
"Hush my dear, lie still and slumber," 

Softer still the mother sings; 
Night has fallen and enfolds me, 

Where my sea-grass hammock swings. 



PART II 

PROSE SELECTIONS 

For High Schools and Colleges 



The Destiny of Democracy 

John W. Westcott 

This selection and the one following are given as types of nominat- 
ing speeches at Democratic and Republican national conventions. 
The extract below is taken from the speech by Judge Westcott, of 
New Jersey, in nominating President Wilson for a second term, 
at the National Democratic Convention, St. Louis, 19 16. The speech 
is highly figurative and oratorical in construction, appealing to a 
wide range of emotions. Ringing tones and strong force are required 
for effective delivery. 

The commanding fact of the modern age is the 
spread of intelligence. The schoolhouse has con- 
quered ignorance. The printing press has' trans- 
formed the purposes and capacities of man. Educa- 
tion has qualified him for a better existence. The, 
Bible has made him a moralist. Men know that 
the world is big enough to support the human family 
in peace and comfort. Men know that the great 
problem of peace and comfort is not yet solved. 
They know that it cannot be solved by the savagery 
of war. They know that its solution is obtainable 
only in conditions of peace, reason, and a practical 
morality. The state of knowledge is the crowning 
achievement of progress. 

The American experiment of self-government has 
stood the test. The achievements of the American 
system are known of all men and felt throughout 
the world. The United States is the world's asylum. 
Here all races, all conditions, all creeds are assimi- 
lated, helped, elevated, and men are made into self- 

197 



198 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

governing men. In America justice has made its 
greatest progress, because it is progress in which 
all men have a part. That form of government 
which affords the fullest opportunity for happiness 
and comfort is destined to be the universal form. 
Such is the resistless syllogism of progress. War 
cannot stop its inevitable march. The opinion of 
all men is more potential than the opinion of one 
man. The best opinion of the best men, by the 
force of example and mutuality of interest, becomes 
the opinion of all men. American opinion is em- 
bodied in a man of peace. American opinion is 
marching through the world. 

Sons of America, keep unsullied the sacred shrine 
of peace, through whose portals will yet pass arm 
in arm the crowned head and the humble peasant 
in silent worship of God. 

Out of the ruins and sufferings of the present 
conflict will arise a temple of justice whose dome 
will be the blue vault of heaven; its illuminants the 
eternal stars; its pillars the everlasting hills; its 
ornaments the woods and bountiful fields ; its music 
the rippling rills, the song of birds, the laughter of 
happy childhood ; its diapason the roar of mills and 
the hum of industry ; its votaries the peoples of the 
earth ; its creed, on which hangs all the law and the 
prophets, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Above 
its altars in ineffaceable color will live eternally the 
vision of its artificer. 

Therefore, my fellow-countrymen, not I, but his 
deeds and achievements; not I, but the spirit and 
purpose of America; not I, but the prayers of just 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 199 

men; not I, but civilization itself nominates to 
succeed himself to the presidency of the United 
States, to the presidency of a hundred million free 
people, bound in impregnable union, the scholar, 
the statesman, the financier, the emancipator, the 
pacificator, the moral leader of democracy, Wood- 
row Wilson. 

"A Plumed Knight" 

Robert G. Ingersoll 

This well-known speech, delivered in the Republican National Con- 
vention of 1876, has long been a favorite for declaiming. It is 
given here as a companion selection to the preceding both because 
of its intrinsic merit and also for the purpose of furnishing students 
an opportunity to compare the style of the wo speeches. After 
Ingersoll delivered this speech, the term "Plumed Knight" clung to 
Blaine during the remainder of his political career. In delivery this 
declamation demands all the fire and force you can muster: dynamic, 
ringing tones, shot forth like bullets from a gun Following the 
climax at the end of the second paragraph, there is a transition re- 
quiring slower rate and a change in tone, resulting from the change 
in emotional appeal, but aside from such momentary changes, the 
delivery throughout should be with strong force and "explosive" 
tones. 

The Republicans of the United States demand 
as their leader in this great contest of 1876 a man 
of intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of well- 
known and approved political opinions. They de- 
mand a statesman. They demand a politician in 
the highest, broadest, and best sense, a man of 
superb moral courage. They demand a man who 
knows that prosperity and resumption, when they 
come, must come together ; that when they come, 
they will come hand in hand through the golden 
harvest fields ; hand in hand by the whirling spindles 



200 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

and the turning wheels ; hand in hand past the open 
furnace doors ; hand in hand by the flaming forges ; 
hand in hand by the chimneys filled with eager 
fire, greeted and grasped by the countless sons of 
toil. 

The Republicans of the United States want a 
man who knows that this government should pro- 
tect every citizen at home and abroad; who knows 
that any government that will not defend its de- 
fenders and protect its protectors is a disgrace to 
the map of the world. They demand a man who 
believes in the eternal separation and divorcement 
of church and school. They demand a man whose 
political reputation is spotless. Crowned with the 
vast and marvelous achievements of its first century, 
this nation asks for a man worthy of the past and 
prophetic of the future; asks for a man who has 
the audacity of genius; asks for a man who has 
the grandest combination of heart, conscience, and 
brain beneath her flag. Such a man is James G. 
Blaine. 

This is a grand year — a year filled with the 
recollections of the Revolution, filled with the proud 
and tender memories of the past, with the sacred 
legends of liberty — a year in which the sons of 
freedom will drink from the fountain of enthusiasm 
— a year in which the people call for a man who 
has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won 
upon the field — for the man who, like an intellectual 
athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and chal- 
lenged all comers, and who is still a total stranger 
to defeat. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 201 

Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, 
James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the 
American Congress and threw his shining lance full 
and fair against the brazen foreheads of the de- 
famers of his country and the maligner of her 
honor. For the Republican party to desert this 
gallant leader now is as though an army should 
desert their leader upon the field of battle. 

Gentlemen of the Convention: In the name of 
this great Republic, in the name of all her defenders 
and of all her supporters; in the name of all her 
soldiers living ; in the name of all her soldiers dead 
upon the field of battle; and in the name of those 
who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine at 
Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings she so 
vividly remembers, Illinois — Illinois nominates for 
the President of this country that prince of parlia- 
mentarians, that leader of leaders — James G. Blaine. 

America and International Peace 

Theodore Roosevelt 

Mr. Roosevelt is not an orator. Long, sonorous, oratorical periods 
do not fit his nature and methods. He strikes out straight from 
the shoulder with a definite aim, and the style of his speeches is 
direct, forceful talk, with an occasional emphatic gesture. This is 
the proper interpretation of this declamation for delivery. 

No sensible man will advocate our plunging 
rashly into a course of international knight-errantry; 
none will advocate our setting deliberately to work 
to build up a great colonial empire. But neither 
will any brave and patriotic man bid us shrink 
from doing our duty merely because this duty in- 




202 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

volves the certainty of strenuous effort and the 
possibility of danger. 

We should not lightly court danger and diffi- 
culty, but neither should we shirk from facing 
them, when in some way or other they must be 
met. We are a great nation and we are compelled, 
whether we will or not, to face the responsibilities 
that must be faced by all great nations. It is not 
in our power to avoid meeting them. All that we 
can decide is whether we shall meet them well or 
ill. There are social reformers who tell us that in 
the far distant future the necessity for fighting will 
be done away with, just as there are social re- 
formers who tell us that in that long distant time 
the necessity for work — or, at least, for painful, 
laborious work — will be done away with. But, just 
as at present, the nation, like the individual, which 
is going to do anything in the world must face the 
fact that in order to do it it must work and may 
have to fight. And it is only thus that great deeds 
can be done, and the highest and purest form of 
happiness acquired. Remember that peace itself, 
that peace after which all men crave, is merely the 
realization in the present of what has been bought 
by strenuous effort in the past. Peace represents 
stored- up effort of our fathers or of ourselves in 
the past. It is not a means — it is an end. You do 
not get peace by peace ; you get peace as the result 
of effort. If you strive to get it by peace, you will 
lose it, that is all. If we ever grow to regard 
peace as a permanent condition; if we ever grow 
to feel that we can afford to let the keen, fearless, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 203 

virile qualities of heart and mind and body be 
lost, then we will prepare the way for inevitable 
and shameful disaster in the future. 

Peace is of true value only as we use it in part 
to make ready to face with untroubled heart, with 
fearless front, whatever the future may have in 
store for us. The peace which breeds timidity and 
sloth is a curse and not a blessing. The law of 
worthy national life, like the law of worthy in- 
dividual life, is, after all, fundamentally, the law 
of strife. It may be strife military, it may be strife 
civic; but certain it is that only through strife, 
through labor, and painful effort, by grim energy 
and by resolute courage, we move on to better things. 

A Pan-American Policy 

Elihii Root 

This is an extract from a speech at the Pan-American Conference 
held at Rio Janeiro, South America, Mr. Root being at that time 
Secretary of State. It was an epoch-making speech, since it was 
the first noteworthy official utterance of the attitude of the United 
States toward the South American republics. 

No nation can live unto itself alone and continue 
to live. Each nation's growth is a part of the de- 
velopment of the race. There may be leaders and 
there may be laggards, but no nation can long con- 
tinue very far in advance of the general progress 
of mankind, and no nation that is not doomed to 
extinction can remain very far behind. It is with 
nations as it is with individual men; intercourse, 
association, correction of egotism by the influence 
of others' judgment, broadening of views by the 




204 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

experience and thought of equals, acceptance of 
the moral standards of a community the desire for 
whose good opinion lends a sanction to the rules of 
right conduct, — these are the conditions of growth 
in civilization. A people whose minds are not open 
to the lessons of the world's progress, whose spirits 
are not stirred by the aspirations and the achieve- 
ments of humanity struggling the world over for 
liberty and justice, must be left behind by civiliza- 
tion in its steady and beneficent advance. 

These beneficent results the Government and 
the people of the United States of America greatly 
desire. We wish for no victories but those of 
peace; for no territory except our own; for no 
sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. 
We deem the independence and equal rights of the 
smallest and weakest member of the family of na- 
tions entitled to as much respect as those of the 
greatest empire, and we deem the observance of 
that respect the chief guaranty of the weak against 
the oppression of the strong. We neither claim 
nor desire any rights, or privileges, or powers that 
we do not freely concede to every American re- 
public. We wish to increase our prosperity, to 
expand our trade, to grow in wealth, in wisdom, 
and in spirit, but our conception of the true way 
to accomplish this is not to pull down others and 
profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a 
common prosperity and a common growth, that we 
may all become greater and stronger together. 

Let us help each other to show that for all the 
races of men the Liberty for which we have fought 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 205 

and labored is the twin sister of Justice and Peace. 
Let us unite in creating and maintaining and mak- 
ing effective an all-American public opinion, whose 
power shall influence international conduct and pre- 
vent international wrong, and narrow the causes of 
war, and forever preserve our free lands from the 
burden of such armaments as are massed behind 
the frontiers of Europe, and bring us ever nearer 
to the perfection of ordered liberty. So shall come 
security and prosperity, production and trade, 
wealth, learning, the arts, and happiness for us all. 
Not in a single conference, nor by a single effort, 
can very much be done. You labor more for the 
future than for the present ; but if the right impulse 
is given, if the right tendency be established, the 
work you do here will go on among all the millions 
of people in the American continents long after 
your final adjournment, long after your lives, with 
incalculable benefit to all our beloved countries, 
which may it please God to continue free and in- 
dependent and happy for ages to come. 

War 

Editorial from Leslie's Weekly 

This selection, and several others immediately following, deal with 
phases of the general subject of International Peace. The following 
declamation is a vivid portrayal of the horrors and folly of war. 
The resulting emotions, with a proper distribution of force, should 
readily find expression in the delivery. 

The last of the savage instincts is war. The 
cave man's club made law and procured food. 
Might decreed right. Warriors were saviours. 




2o6 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

In Nazareth a carpenter laid down the saw and 
preached the brotherhood of man. Twelve cen- 
turies afterwards his followers marched to the 
Holy Land to destroy all who differed with them 
in the worship of the God of Love. Triumphantly 
they wrote, "In Solomon's Porch and in his temple 
our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to 
the knees of their horses." 

History is an appalling tale of war. In the 
seventeenth century Germany, France, Sweden, and 
Spain warred for thirty years. At Madgeburg 
30,000 out of 36,000 were killed regardless of sex 
or age. In Germany schools were closed a third 
of a century, homes burned, women outraged, 
towns demolished, and the untilled land became a 
wilderness. 

Two-thirds of Germany's property was destroyed 
and 18,000,000 of her citizens were killed, because 
men quarrelled about the way to glorify "The 
Prince of Peace." Marching through rain and 
snow, sleeping on the ground, eating stale food or 
starving, contracting diseases and facing guns that 
fire six hundred times a minute, for fifty cents a 
day — this is the soldier's life. 

At the window sits the widowed mother crying. 
Little children with tearful faces pressed against 
the pane watch and wait. Their means of liveli- 
hood, their home, their happiness is gone. Father- 
less children, broken-hearted women, sick, disabled 
and dead men — this is the wage of war. 

We spend more money preparing men to kill 
each other than we do in teaching them to live. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 207 

We spend more money building one battleship than 
in the annual maintenance of all our state uni- 
versities. The financial loss resulting from destroy- 
ing one another's homes in the civil war would 
have built 15,000,000 houses, each costing $2,000. 
We pray for love but prepare for hate. We preach 
peace but equip for war. 

Were half the power that fills the world with terror, 
Were half the wealth bestowed on camp and court 

Given to redeem this world from error, 

There would be no need of arsenal and fort. 

War only defers a question. No issue will ever 
really be settled until it is settled rightly. Like 
rival "gun gangs" in a back alley, the nations of 
the world, through the bloody ages, have fought 
over their differences. Denver cannot fight Chicago 
and Iowa cannot fight Ohio. Why should Germany 
be permitted to fight France, or Bulgaria fight 
Turkey ? 

When mankind rises above creeds, colors and 
countries, when we are citizens, not of a nation, 
but of the world, the armies and navies of the earth 
will constitute an international police force to pre- 
serve the peace and the dove will take the eagle's 
place. Our differences will be settled by an inter- 
national court with the power to enforce its man- 
dates. In times of peace prepare for peace. The 
wages of war are the wages of sin, and the "wages 
of sin is death." 



2o8 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

France at the Opening of the Great War 

Robert W . Chambers 

This declamation is adapted from a story appearing in the Co 
mopolitan for June, 19 16. For a keener appreciation of its meaning, 
review the history of the Franco-Prussian War and of the part France 
played in the recent Great War. In delivery, special effort should 
be made to present smoothly the many shifting scenes of the war 
drama, the while voicing the suspense felt in France and the win- 
some appeal of "the far cry from beyond the Vosges." 

On August 5th, 1914, in the little town of Ausone, 
in eastern France, there were few signs of war 
visible except the exodus of the young men and 
the crowds before the bulletins. On one of the 
bulletin boards was nailed the order for general 
mobilization; on the other, a terse paragraph an- 
nounced that on Sunday, August 2nd, German 
soldiers had entered the city of Luxemburg, crossed 
the grand duchy, and were already skirmishing' 
with Belgian cavalry around Liege and with French 
troops before Longwy. In other terms, the Teu- 
tonic invasion had begun; German troops were 
already on French soil, for Longwy is the most 
northern of the republic's fortifications. 

Another paragraph reported that King Albert of 
Belgium had appealed to England, and that Sir 
Edward Grey, in the House of Commons, had 
prepared his country for an immediate ultimatum 
to Germany. 

And Germany had not yet declared war on either 
France or Belgium, nor had England declared war 
on Germany, nor had Austria, as yet, formally de- 
clared war on Russia. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 209 

But there seemed to be no doubt, no confusion, 
in the minds of the inhabitants of Ausone concern- 
ing what was happening, and what fate still con- 
cealed behind a veil already growing transparent 
enough to see through — already lighted by the in- 
fernal flashes of German rifle-fire before Longwy. 

Everybody in Ausone knew, everybody in France 
understood. A great stillness settled over the re- 
public, as though the entire land had paused to 
kneel a moment before the long day of work began. 

Amid the vast silence, as the nation rose serenely 
from its knees, millions of flashing eyes were 
turned toward Alsace and Lorraine — eyes dimmed 
for an instant, then instantly clear again — clear 
and steady as the sound and logical minds con- 
trolling them. 

In London, a king, a prime minister, and a first 
lord of the admiralty were listening to a sirdar 
who was laying down the law by wireless to a 
president and his premier. In St. Petersburg, an 
emperor was whispering to a priest. 

Meanwhile, the spinning world swung on around 
its orbit; tides rose and ebbed; the twin sentinels 
of the skies relieved each other as usual, and a few 
billion stars waited patiently for eternity. 

Ausone was waiting, too, amid its still trees and 
ripening fields. In the summer world around, no 
hint of impending change disturbed the calm 
serenity of that August afternoon — no sense of 
waiting, no prophecy of gathering storms. But in 
men's hearts reigned the breathless stillness which 
heralds tempests. 




210 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Silently as a kestrel's shadow gliding over the 
grass, an ominous shade sped over sunny France, 
darkening the light in millions of smiling eyes, 
subduing speech, stilling all pulses, cautioning a 
nation's ardent heart and conjuring its ears to listen 
and its lips to silence. 

And as France sat silent, listening, hand lightly 
resting on her hilt, came the far cry from beyond 
Vosges — the voice of her lost children, the long- 
mourned Alsace and Lorraine. 

Now she had risen to her feet, loosening the 
blade in its scabbard. But she had not yet drawn 
it; she still stood listening to the distant shots 
from Longwy in the north, to the noise of the 
western wind blowing across the Channel ; and al- 
ways she heard, from the east, the lost voices of 
her best beloved, calling, calling her from beyond 
the Vosges. 



The Woe of Belgium 

Newell Dwight Hillis 

This is an extract from a lecture delivered in Plymouth Church, 
Brooklyn, shortly after the German drive through Belgium at the 
opening of the recent Great War. Pathos is, of course, the dominant 
emotion. This gives way momentarily to other emotions in parts 
of the first two paragraphs, but the pathos of the whole is to be 
strongly felt and expressed. 

Out of a glorious past comes the woe of Belgium. 
Desolation has come like the whirlwind, and de- 
struction like a tornado. But a short time ago 
and Belgium was a hive of industry, and in the 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 211 

fields were heard the harvest songs. Suddenly, 
Germany struck Belgium. The whole world has 
but one voice, "Belgium has innocent hands." She 
was led like a lamb to the slaughter. When the 
lover of Germany is asked to explain Germany's 
breaking of her solemn treaty upon the neutrality of 
Belgium, the German stands dumb and speechless. 
Merchants honor their written obligations. True 
citizens consider their word as good as their bond ; 
Germany gave a treaty, and in the presence of 
God and the civilized world, entered into a solemn 
convenant with Belgium. To the end of time, the 
German must expect this taunt, "as worthless as 
a German treaty." Scarcely less black are the two 
or three known examples of cruelty wrought upon 
nonresisting Belgians. In Brooklyn lives a Bel- 
gian woman. She planned to return home in late 
July to visit a father who had suffered paralysis, 
an aged mother, and a sister who nursed both. 
When the Germans decided to burn that village in 
Eastern Belgium, they did not wish to burn alive 
this old and helpless man, so they bayonetted to 
death the old man and woman, and the daughter 
that nursed them. 

Let us judge not, that we be not judged. This 
is the one example of atrocity that you and I might 
be able personally to prove. But every loyal Ger- 
man in the country can make answer : "These sol- 
diers were drunk with wine and blood. Such an 
atrocity misrepresents Germany and her soldiers. 
The breaking of Germany's treaty with Belgium 
represents the dishonor of a military ring, and not 



212 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

the perfidy of 68,000,000 of people. We ask that 
judgment be postponed until all the facts are in." 

But meanwhile the heart bleeds for Belgium. 
For Brussels, the third most beautiful city in 
Europe ! For Louvain, once rich with its libraries, 
cathedrals, statues, paintings, missals, manuscripts 
— now a ruin. Alas ! for the ruined harvests and 
the smoking villages ! Alas ! for the Cathedral that 
is a heap, and the library that is a ruin. Where 
the angel of happiness was, there stalk Famine and 
Death. Gone, the Land of Grotius ! Perished the 
paintings of Rubens ! Ruined is Louvain. Where 
the wheat waved, now the hillsides are billowy with 
graves. 

But let us believe that God reigns. The spirit 
of evil caused this war, but the Spirit of God may 
bring good out of it, just as the summer can repair 
the ravages of winter. Perchance Belgium is slain 
like the Saviour, that militarism may die like Satan. 
Without shedding of innocent blood there is no 
remission of sins through tyranny and greed. There 
is no wine without the crushing of the grapes from 
the tree of life. Soon Liberty, God's dear child, 
will stand within the scene and comfort the desolate. 
Falling upon the great world's altar stairs, in this 
hour when wisdom is ignorance, and the strongest 
man clutches at dust and straw, let us believe, with 
faith victorious over tears, that some time God will 
gather broken-hearted little Belgium into His arms 
and comfort her as a Father comforteth his well- 
beloved child. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 213 

The Dead Hand of the Past in Europe 

Albert Leon Guerard 

This is an extract from a commencement address delivered in June, 
1916. The speaker is an immigrant to America, and now Professor 
of History in Rice Institute. He is therefore well qualified to 6peak 
authoritatively on his theme. 

The reason for America's sanity as a nation, the 
unique power which enables her to welcome men 
from all parts of the world and to turn them into 
loyal citizens, is that America is a country that 
looks forward instead of backward — in other terms, 
a country whose ideals are principles instead of 
traditions. Europe is suffering from an overdose 
of the historical spirit; Europe lacks the healthy 
radicalism, the youthfulness, I had almost said the 
boyishness, of the American mind. When you 
travel in dear old Europe, you are delighted with 
the quaint villages, the churches and castles hoary 
with centuries, the bright costumes of the peasant 
women, the narrow, crooked lanes of medieval 
cities, the pomp of court functions and military 
pageants. History is beautiful for the poet, the 
artist, and even for the casual traveller. But Europe 
is choked up with history. The German imagina- 
tion is so filled with thoughts of the middle ages 
that, with them, history amounts to an obsession, 
to a mental disease. For a long time the French 
would hark back to ancient Gaul, with the Rhine 
as its Northeastern boundary. The French and the 
Germans are still fighting out the consequences of 
the treaty of Verdun in 843. Traditions, customs, 



214 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

institutions, dynasties, have cast their potent spells 
over the minds of our European friends. They 
are haunted with the memories of the gorgeous and 
tragic past, and in the shadowy world in which 
they live they have lost the sense of actual values. 

The nationalistic, traditionalist education of 
Europe fosters exclusiveness, diffidence, hatred. 
Hence the strange paradox that the best educated of 
all European nations is also the most bigoted in its 
pride and selfishness; that the hateful prejudices 
which caused the Great War were engendered, not 
by the common people, but by poets, politicians and 
University professors. 

All of us, when we come to America, are wel- 
come to preserve our sentimental and artistic tradi- 
tions, but we are expected to leave behind all the 
hereditary jealousies which are the warp and woof 
of European history. What Europe needs is a 
similar experience, a great unlearning, a mighty 
revolution against the dead hand of the past that 
still oppresses her. The past is past! Let us 
cherish the fine old stories of our fathers' heroic 
deeds. But let us settle all present and future 
differences as men of the twentieth century. If 
we could but conjure away that incubus of historical 
traditions, peace would be at hand. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 215 

To Liberate Ireland is not Treason to England 

Roger Casement 

A pathetic incident connected with the Great European War was 
the effort of a small band of Irishmen, under the leadership of Sir 
Roger Casement, to liberate Ireland from English rule. The upris- 
ing was soon quelled, and several of the active participants were 
executed. Casement was tried for high treason, and sentenced to 
death. The following selection is taken from his speech in court at 
the close of his trial, June 29, 1916. Students of oratory will be 
reminded of the speech by Robert Emmet delivered in his own 
defease under similar circumstances. The trial of Casement at- 
tracted world-wide attention. "The whole scene," wrote the cor- 
respondent for the New York Times, "with Casement a somber figure 
in black standing in the dark shadow of the dock, with a filtering 
ray of sunlight shining upon the three Justices before whom he stood, 
was one that riveted the spectators to the end." A vivid imagery of 
the whole setting of this speech, and strong sustained feeling through- 
out, are necessary for effective delivery. 

It is charged here that my efforts to liberate 
Ireland were the more highly treasonable because 
England was battling for her life. But why, for- 
sooth, should Ireland battle for England? More- 
over, when I saw Englishmen themselves refusing 
to enter the army, I saw no reason why Irishmen 
should be slain for Englishmen's gain. If a small 
subjugated nation like Belgium is entitled to any 
consideration, I saw no reason why Ireland should 
shed any blood for any people but her own. 

If that be treason, I am not ashamed to avow it 
here. I am prouder to stand here, in a traitor's 
dock, that to fill the place of my accusers. 

This court, this jury, the public opinion of this 
country, England, cannot but be prejudiced in vary- 
ing degrees against me, most of all in time of war. 
I did not land in England; I landed in Ireland. 



2i6 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

But for the Attorney General of England there is 
no Ireland, there is only England ; there is no right 
of Ireland, only the law of England. Yet for me, 
the Irish outlaw, there is a land of Ireland, a right 
of Ireland, a charter for all Irishmen to appeal 
to in the last resort, a charter that even the very 
statutes of England cannot deprive me of, a charter 
that Englishmen themselves assert as a fundamental 
bond of law that connects the two kingdoms, — the 
right to trial by my peers. 

That is the condemnation of English rule in 
Ireland, of English-made law, that it dare not rest 
on the will of the Irish people, but exists in de- 
fiance of their will, that it is a rule derived, not 
from right, but from conquest. Conquest gives no 
title ; it can exert no empire over men's reason and 
judgment and affections. It is from this law of 
conquest, without title to the reason, judgment, and 
affections of my own countrymen, that I appeal. 

I am being tried, in truth, not by my peers of 
the living present but by fears of the dead past; 
not by the civilization of the twentieth century, 
but by the brutality of the fourteenth ; not even by 
a statute framed in the language of the land that 
tries me, but emitted in the language of an enemy- 
land ; so antiquated is the law that must be sought 
to-day to slay an Irishman whose offense is that 
he puts Ireland first. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 217 

The Protection of American Citizens 

William P. Frye 

This is an extract from a speech delivered in the U. S. Senate, 
Mr. Frye for a number of terms having represented the State of 
Maine in that body. It will be interesting to compare the sentiment 
of this speech with the one immediately following. The argument 
and sentiment of this declamation revolves about the illustrative 
story. This should be vividly presented. See the picture: the 
stretch of swamps and morass, the frowning dungeon on the moun- 
tain heights, the battle and the rescue. Some suggestive gestures 
will naturally be used, but make them suggestive only, and not 
imitative. Don't, for example, go through the movements of reach- 
ing down in the dungeon and lifting out the prisoner. 

We hear a great deal of the duty the citizen owes 
the government, and too little of the duty the 
government owes the citizen. American citizens 
should be protected in their life and liberty where- 
ever they may be and at any cost. 

I think one of the grandest things in the history 
of Great Britain is that she does protect her citizens 
everywhere and anywhere, under all circumstances. 
Her mighty power is put forth for their relief and 
protection, and it is admirable. I do not wonder 
that a British citizen loves his country. 

About twenty years ago the king of Abyssinia 
took a British citizen by the name of Campbell, car- 
ried him to the heights of a lofty mountain, to the 
fortress of Magdala, and put him into a dungeon 
without cause. It took Great Britain six months to 
learn of that, and then she demanded his immediate 
release. The king of Abyssinia refused to release 
him. In less than ten days after that refusal 3000 
British soldiers and 5000 Sepoys were on . board 



2i8 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

ships of war, sailing for the Abyssinian coast. 
When they arrived they were disembarked, were 
marched seven hundred miles over swamps and 
morass, under a burning sun, then up the mountain 
to its very heights, in front of the frowning dun- 
geon, and then they gave battle. They battered 
down the iron gates, they overturned the stone 
walls. Then they reached down into that dungeon 
with an English hand, lifted out from it that one 
British citizen, took him to the coast and sped him 
away on the white-winged ships to his home in 
safety. That expedition cost Great Britain 
$25,000,000. 

Now, sir, a country that has an eye that can see 
across an ocean, away across the many miles of land, 
up into the mountain heights, down into the dark- 
some dungeon, one, just one of her 38,000,000 peo- 
ple, and then has an arm strong enough and long 
enough to reach across the same ocean, across the 
same swamps and marshes, up the same mountain 
heights, down into the same dungeon, and take him 
out and carry him home to his own country, a free 
man — where will you find a man who will not live 
and die for a country that will do that ? 

All that I ask of this republic of ours is that it 
shall model itself after Great Britain in this one 
thing — that wherever the American citizen may be, 
whether in Great Britain, Cuba, Turkey, China or 
Mexico, he shall be perfectly assured of the fullest 
protection of the American government. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 219 

Against Militarism 

William J. Bryan 

This is the concluding portion of a lecture delivered many times 
during the years 1915 and 1916. Mr. Bryan is generally recognized 
as one of the leading representatives of the pacifists, or peace party. 
It will be seen that the following selection is an answer, in a way, 
to the one preceding. The first paragraph deals for the most 
part with argument. This should be delivered with directness, 
earnestness, and force. The last three paragraphs are largely appeal, 
and require yet more force with strong feeling. 

Every American citizen ha,s duties as well as 
rights. Do you say that it is the duty of this govern- 
ment to take its army and follow an American 
citizen around the world and protect his rights? 
That is only one side of the proposition. The ob- 
ligations of citizenship are reciprocal. It is the duty 
of the citizen to consider his country's safety and 
the welfare of his fellowmen. In time of war the 
government can take the son from his widowed 
mother and compel him to give his life to help his 
country out of war. If, in time of war, the govern- 
ment can compel its citizens to die in order to bring 
the war to an end, the government can, in time of 
peace, say to its citizens that they shall not, by tak- 
ing unnecessary risks, drag their country into war. 

Some nation must lift the world out of the black 
night of war into the light of that day when an en- 
during peace can be built on love and brotherhood, 
and I crave that honor for this nation. More glori- 
ous than any page of history that has yet been writ- 
ten will be the page that records our claim to the 
promise made to the peacemakers. 




220 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

This is the day for which the ages have been 
waiting. For nineteen hundred years the gospel of 
the Prince of Peace has been making its majestic 
march around the world, and during these centuries 
the philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount has be- 
come more and more the rule of daily life. It only 
remains to lift that code of morals from the level 
of the individual and make it real in the law of 
nations, and ours is the nation best prepared to set 
the example. We are less hampered by precedent 
than other nations and therefore more free to act. 
I appreciate the value of precedent — what higher 
tribute can I pay it than to say that it is as universal 
as the law of gravitation and as necessary to stabil- 
ity? And yet the law of gravitation controls only 
inanimate nature — everything that lives is in con- 
stant combat with the law of gravitation. The tiniest 
insect that creeps upon the ground wins a victory 
over it every time it moves ; even the slender blade 
of grass sings a song of triumph over the universal 
law as it lifts itself up toward the sun. So every 
step in human progress breaks the law of precedent. 
Precedent lives in the past — it relies on memory; 
because a thing never was, precedent declares that 
it can never be. Progress walks by faith and dares 
to try the things that ought to be. 

This, too, is the leading Christian nation. We 
give more money every year to carry the gospel 
to those who live under other flags than any other 
nation now living or that has lived. The two rea- 
sons combine to fix the eyes of the world upon us 
as the one nation which is at liberty to lead the way 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 221 

from the blood-stained methods of the past out into 
the larger and better day. We must not disappoint 
the hopes which our ideals and achievements have 
excited. If I know the heart of the American peo- 
ple they are not willing that this supreme opportu- 
nity shall pass by unimproved. No, the metropolitan 
press is not the voice of the nation ; you can no more 
measure the sentiment of the peace-loving masses 
by the froth of the jingo press than you can measure 
the ocean's depths by the foam upon its waves. * 

The American Spirit Incarnate 

Franklin K. Lane 

This is taken from an address delivered at the commencement 
exercises at Brown University, June, 19 16. This is a strong, direct 
talk on a subject of live interest. The concrete illustration in the 
introduction offers a fine opening for driving home the theme that 
is at once developed. And the appeal embodied in the picture of 
the Belgians before the American flag, together with the brief closing 
comment, if delivered with strong emotion and in sympathetic tones, 
can be made to move any audience. 

There are two monuments in Paris which face 
each other that are symbols to me of the two con- 
flicting spirits which make up the struggle of life. 
One is the tomb of Napoleon. And further down 
the boulevard Falguire's statue of Pasteur. Na- 
poleon's tomb all see. Pasteur's statue few visit. 
It is a sitting figure upon a pedestal. And on the 
sides of this pedestal are figures in relief illustrating 
Pasteur's services to the world. On the front is the 
great group. A girl is seen just rising from a sick- 
bed. She leans against her mother, who in turn 
looks up with ineffable gratitude into the face of 




222 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Pasteur, while a figure of Death, beaten and baffled, 
slinks away around the opposite side of the pedestal. 
National spirit and martial spirit are not the 
same. There was a time when war was all of 
romance and of gallantry and of opportunity that 
the world offered. That time has gone. War now 
at its best is but one expression of the human pas- 
sion for adventure and achievement. The spirit of 
America is against war not because we have grown 
cowardly and fear death, nor because we have 
grown flabby and love softness; no, not even be- 
cause we have become conscious converts to the 
Prince of Peace. But we in America have some- 
thing larger to do. We are discovering our coun- 
try. Every tree is a challenge to us, and every pool 
of water and every foot of soil. The mountains 
are our enemies; we must pierce them and make 
them serve. The willful rivers we must curb; and 
out of the seas and air renew the life of the earth 
itself. We have no time for war. We are doing 
something so much more important. We are at 
work. That is the greatest of all adventures. When 
war comes to a Democracy it comes because we are 
not allowed peacefully to work. What would we 
fight for ? For what Roger Williams fought for, to 
be let alone, to have the opportunity to show what 
man can do for man. 

My friends, if the American spirit gives any evi- 
dence of being in a state of decline or decadence in 
the East, come with me to my Western country, — 
''Out where the west begins." 

A spirit is intangible. It can only be made com- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 223 



prehensible by acts. So let me illustrate my idea 
of the spirit of America by citing the case of Her- 
bert Hoover, a mining engineer from Stanford 
University and head of the Belgian Relief Com- 
mittee. That young man comes to this country un- 
noticed and leaves unnoticed. But his adminis- 
trative mind made possible the feeding of a nation. 
He organized the financial system for Belgium. 
Through him the heart of the world spoke to those 
suffering people. Through him England gave five 
million dollars a month and France four-and-a-half 
million dollars a month for the support of this un- 
fortunate people, and the United States has given 
seven million in all. But we made it possible for 
any of it to reach those people. 

If anyone now maintains that the American flag 
is not respected abroad, let him go to Brussels and 
stand in front of the United States legation and see 
the passing Belgians salute the Stars and Stripes, 
which never have been hauled down in Belgium 
since the first German drive into that desolated 
country, and from sunrise in the morning until sun- 
set at night the Belgian peasants and Belgian 
artisans pass that house, and as each passes takes 
his hat off to that flag. 

And this comes in large measure as the result of 
the work of Herbert Hoover, the incarnation of the 
spirit of American desire to help the world. Let 
us stand beside the Belgian peasant before that flag 
over in Brussels and take heart. 



224 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Fair Play for Woman 

George William Curtis 

The striking contrasts in the first paragraph should be noted and 
expressed. Each of the succeeding paragraphs denote a marked 
transition, to be indicated by a pause and change in each case. In 
the last paragraph, note the artful application of the incident related 
in the paragraph preceding. Vary the emphasis in the repetitions of 
"So are we." And bring out the conclusion in round, full tones, 
with slow rate and strong force. 

The woman's rights movement in this country is 
the simple claim that the same opportunity and 
privilege that man has in society be extended to the 
woman who stands by his side ; that she must prove 
her power as he proves his. Now, when Rosa 
Bonheur paints a vigorous and admirable picture 
of Normandy horses, she proves that she has a 
hundredfold more right to do it than scores of 
botchers and bunglers in color, who wear coats and 
trousers, and whose right, therefore, nobody ques- 
tions. When the Misses Blackwell, or Miss Hunt, 
or Miss Preston, or Miss Avery, accomplishing 
themselves in medicine with a firm hand and clear 
brain, carry the balm of life to suffering humanity, it 
is as much their right, as much their duty, as it is 
that of any long-haired, sallow, dissipated boy, who 
hisses them as they go upon their holy mission. 
And so when Joan of Arc follows God and leads 
the army, when the Maid of Saragossa loads and 
fires the cannon, when Grace Darling and Ida Lewis, 
pulling their boats through pitiless waves, save fel- 
low-creatures from drowning, do you ask me if 
these are not exceptional women? And I answer 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 225 

that they are. But Florence Nightingale, demand- 
ing supplies for sick soldiers in the Crimea, and 
when they are delayed by red tape ordering a file 
of soldiers to break down the doors and bring them, 
seems to me quite as womanly as the loveliest girl 
in the land, dancing at the gayest ball, in a dress of 
which the embroidery is the pinched lines of starva- 
tion in another girl's face, and whose pearls are the 
tears of despair in her eyes. Jenny Lind enchanting 
the heart of the world, Anna Dickinson pleading for 
equal liberty of her sex, are doing what God, by his 
great gifts of eloquence and song, appointed them 
to do. 

This movement may encounter sneers; but what 
reform has not? Even Mr. Webster derided the 
anti-slavery movement as "a drum-beat agitation." 
But it was a drum-beat that echoed over every 
mountain, penetrated every valley, and roused the 
hearts of the nation to throb in unison. In one of 
the fierce Western battles among the mountains, 
General Thomas was watching a body of his troops 
painfully pushing their way up a steep hill against 
a withering fire. Victory seemed impossible; and 
the General, even he, "the rock of Chicamauga," 
suddenly exclaimed: "They can't do it; they will 
never reach the top." His chief of staff, watching 
the battle with equal earnestness, placing his hand 
on his commander's arm, said, softly: "Time, time, 
General ; give them time ;" and presently the moist 
eyes of the brave leader saw his troops victorious 
upon the summit. 

They were American soldiers. So are we. They 




226 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

were fighting an American battle. So are we. They 
were climbing up a mountain. So are we. The 
great heart of their leader gave them time, and they 
conquered. The great heart of our country will 
give us time, and we shall triumph. One by one the 
States are falling into line. With the extension in 
modern times of the functions of government to 
deal with social problems, the extension of the 
suffrage to women on equal terms with men is de- 
manded on grounds both of expediency and justice, 
and all the forces of conservatism and prejudice 
shall not prevail against it. 



Eulogy of Washington 

Morris Sheppard 

Although Washington is a frequent — and proper — subject for 
eulogy, the following selection is somewhat outside of the usual. It 
is the concluding part of a speech delivered in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, February 22, 191 1. The sympathetic tones resulting 
from strong feeling should be maintained throughout. The last two 
paragraphs particularly require the emotional quality of tenderness 
combined with admiration. 

The life of Washington is gratifying and refresh- 
ing not only to every American, but to the friends of 
liberty in every portion of the globe. Without ex- 
perience in directing warlike operations on an ex- 
tended scale, without adequate equipment for his 
troops, without a supporting government or treas- 
ury of even moderate strength, he was summoned 
from the farm to the red arena of the battle. 
Through incredible difficulties, with a patience and 
a courage that bordered on the superhuman, he led a 




Winning Declamations-H ow to Speak Them 227 

small and undisciplined body of men taken suddenly 
from the ordinary callings of life to final victory 
against one of the foremost nations of the world. 
In triumph and in disaster he was alike immovable 
and serene ; in official conduct and in private inter- 
course his every act was free from the slightest 
taint of intemperance, immorality, or corruption. 
No massacre of helpless foes, no deeds of cruelty 
defiled his fame. He claimed and received no re- 
ward for his services beyond the gratitude of his 
country. The idol of the Army and the people, he 
might easily have become a king. Thus he taught 
that the pursuits of peace are more sublime than 
those of war, the functions of private life more 
noble than those of public station, the attractions of 
the farm more permanent and uplifting than those 
of noisy cities. 

And who will deny that the hand that wielded the 
sword of righteous revolution, that forced the 
tyrant from our shores, that signed the American 
Constitution and guided the mightiest Republic of 
all history into secure and glorious being, was ever 
greater than when it trained the roses in the gardens 
of Mount Vernon? There is a wonderful signifi- 
ance in the fact that Washington perished prac- 
tically at the close of the eighteenth century. That 
century marked the permanent advent of liberty in 
human institutions; it witnessed the birth and rise 
of Washington, without whom this advent might 
have been delayed indefinitely. Thus an ideal cen- 
tury and an ideal man died almost together. As 
sculpture finds its most beautiful expression in the 



228 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

marble of Phidias, painting its lc ftiest era in the 
frescoes of Raphael, dramatic poetry its superbest 
notes in the plays of Shakespeare, philosophy its 
profoundest embodiment in the inductions of 
Aristotle, music its most perfect utterance in the 
oratorios of Handel, the operas of Mozart, the 
sonatas of Beethoven, so human conduct finds its 
brightest mirror in the life and deeds of Wash- 
ington. 

Of such world import is his name that it looms 
larger through the gathering years. To-day, more 
than a century after his death, the interest and the 
love of earth's increasing millions are centered in 
his memory. Let me refer here to the modest cere- 
mony of his burial, an episode that has not received 
the attention it deserves. His funeral was in keep- 
ing with the quiet and simple majesty that had 
marked his whole existence. Under the stately 
portico of his home on one of the loveliest eminences 
of the Potomac rested his coffined form on a cloud- 
less December afternoon nearly one hundred and 
twelve years ago. 

The peace of an indulgent God was on his brow ; 
the affection of a liberated people at his feet. The 
profound impression of serenity and repose his 
motionless frame imparted gave evidence that in 
death he had but added another victory to the long 
list of his renowned achievements. No pomp, no 
decoration, no pride and circumstance of state em- 
blazoned these final hours. From the countryside 
and from neighboring Alexandria poured his friends 
and fellow citizens in informal array. A few com- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 229 

panions of artillery and cavalry with a single band 
of music gave the only martial touch to the proceed- 
ings. The firing of solemn minute guns from a 
little vessel in the Potomac; the sad procession 
across the wooded lawns and slopes to the family 
vault upon the river's edge ; the dirge that quavered 
in the December winds and sobbed upon the waters ; 
the chanting of the Episcopal orders of the dead ; the 
death service of the Masonic ritual, with the weird 
response, "So mote it be," from the brotherhood he 
loved and honored; the commanding figures of the 
pallbearers, all colonels of the Revolution, his com- 
rades in war, his friends in peace ; the unusual luster 
of the declining sun with which his soul went down 
that evening to rise again upon the shores of endless 
morning, comprise a picture that will never vanish 
from the lengthening galleries of immortality. 

And so they laid him down to sleep in the loving 
arms of old Mount Vernon, where the poplar and 
the aspen whisper peace unto his ashes and glory 
to his soul ; where the Potomac bears every day the 
message of a people's love and veneration. 

Christianity and Life 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

The speaker is not only President of the University of California, 
but also an occasional preacher. The following is taken from a ser« 
mon delivered in Oakland, Cal. The sentences have "punch" in 
them, and the style of delivery should be direct, earnest, strong talk. 
Note the change in rate and general delivery required for the 
paragraph next to the last. 

It is the fundamental teaching of Christianity and 
the indubitable teaching of experience that the only 



230 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

way of making men and the world better is on the 
basis of the Word made flesh and dwelling among 
us. If you are to influence men, you must dwell 
among them. Character must be put at work. Exer- 
cise affords its only sound way of manifesting it- 
self. It will do no good to set it on a cold stone 
pedestal to be viewed from outside an iron railing. 
We want men, and men who will enter into the full 
current of the world's activities ; who will shun the 
dinner tables neither of Levi the publican nor of the 
straight-laced Pharisee, who will walk the dusty 
ways of common life, who can enter into the spirit 
of the synagogue service, of the popular festival, 
of the wedding, who knows the fisherman, the 
farmer, and the doctor of theology, can sympathize 
with the point of view of each, and talk with the 
fisherman in terms of fishing, with the peasant in 
terms of sowing, with the scholar in terms of his 
texts. It is sympathy, appreciation, that men want 
more than bread. It is only through sympathy that 
men are really reached and moved. The barriers 
which hold men and classes of men apart are not 
so much differences in dress, wealth, station, and 
birth, as the consciousness of different points of 
view, — absence of sympathy. 

The religious life will find its sound health only in 
freest exercise. Exercise is its hygiene. To shut 
it up from the real life of the world is to cultivate 
the self-deception of the ostrich which buries its 
head in the sand. You may hear men say, "Politics 
is dirty business, you had better keep out of it." 
No Christian man who is a United States citizen has 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 231 

ever a moral right to announce himself as "out of 
politics. " Every time a Christian citizen absents 
himself from the caucus or the polls he wrongs 
the Christ ideal. Our religion is something that will 
find its fullest development as it finds its most active 
exercise in the intensest activities of human life. 
The places to learn it and live it fullest and best are 
such as the mart, the athletic field, the editorial 
room, the legislative chamber. 

We are not called to asceticism or exclusiveness 
or quietism, but the very meaning and purpose of 
the incarnation is that we should have life and have 
it in abundance, have and possess the world, by liv- 
ing in harmony with the inner spirit of the universe, 
and in accord with the nature of things, become 
leaders and masters of life by conforming to that 
law of service which makes him master of all who 
serves all most and best. The life of isolation is the 
life of selfishness and leads to death. The life that 
is separated from the life of God, and is out of 
touch with the nature of things and refuses to serve 
the purpose of the whole, and lives for itself alone, 
this surely is the life that is not worth living. 

A straggling soldier on the battlefield, fugitive 
from the ranks, seeking safety in selfishness, weary, 
lonely, hopeless, forlorn, you hear over the uplands 
the call of the bugle like a voice crying in the wilder- 
ness. Along the highway the hoof beat of a hurry- 
ing steed. A sight of the great leader returning to 
the command. The tones of his summoning voice. 
A glimpse of the flag through the rifts of the smoke. 
And again you are in the ranks. Again you feel 



232 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

the touch of shoulders. The weary foot springs to 
the throb of martial music. You are moving on 
with the great army, on into victory. 

Through service you have found your life again, 
through following the leader your life has found its 
purpose and regained its birthright, "for all things 
are yours, whether the world, or life or death or 
things present or things to come, all are yours, and 
ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." 



Eloquence of Daniel O'Connell 

Wendell Phillips 

The following extract from Phillips' lecture on O'Connell has been 
a great favorite in declamation contests. This is due (1) to the 
wide range of emotions that the speech touches, (2) to the charm of 
expression (3) to the many changes, allowing great variety in the 
delivery. For example, the quotation from Webster should be given 
with exaggerated volume, a deep orotund tone, and simulated force; 
then the voice drops, in quoting the remark of Lowell, into the purely 
colloquial, off-hand style. Again, in delivering the quotation from 
O'Connell in the last paragraph, don't yell, nor try literally to send 
your voice "across the Atlantic," but it should roll out in chest 
tones — just as big a voice as you have — in large volume and with all 
the force you can command. Then again change to the colloquial as 
you remark on the effect of O'Connell's speech. Now note the quick 
change from humor to pathos, and "no effort" at the close — simply 
let the words speak themselves. It is a fine selection for individual 
coaching or class drill. 

I do not think I exaggerate when I say that never 
since God made Demosthenes has He made a man 
better flitted for a great work than He did Daniel 
O'Connell. 

You may say that I am partial to my hero; but 
John Randolph of Roanoke, who hated an I-ishman 
almost as much as he did a Yankee, when he got 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 233 

to London and heard O'Connell, the old slaveholder 
threw up his hands and exclaimed: "This is the 
man, those are the lips, the most eloquent that speak 
English in my day," and I think he was right. 

Webster could address a bench of judges ; Everett 
could charm a college; Choate could delude a jury; 
Clay could magnetize a senate; and Tom Corwin 
could hold the mob in his right hand, but no one of 
these men could do more than this one thing. The 
wonder about O'Connell was that he could out-talk 
Corwin, he could charm a college better than 
Everett, and leave Clay himself far behind in mag- 
netizing a senate. 

Emerson says, "There is no true eloquence, unless 
there is a man behind the speech." Daniel O'Con- 
nell was listened to because all England and Ireland 
knew that there was a man behind the speech, — one 
who could be neither bought, bullied, nor cheated. 

These physical advantages are half the battle. 
You remember the story James Russell Lowell tells 
of Webster when, a year or two before his death, 
the Whig party thought of dissolution. Webster 
came home from Washington and went down to 
Faneuil Hall to protest, and 4000 of his fellow 
Whigs went out to meet him. Drawing himself up 
to his loftiest proportions, his brow charged with 
thunder, before that sea of human faces, he said: 
"Gentlemen, I am a Whig, a Massachusetts Whig, 
a Faneuil Hall Whig, a revolutionary Whig, a con- 
stitutional Whig; and if you break up the Whig 
party, sir, where am I to go ?" "And," says Lowell, 
"we held our breath thinking where he could go. 



234 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

If he had been five feet three, we should have said: 
'Who cares where you go ?' " 

So it was with O'Connell. There was something 
majestic in his presence before he spoke, and he 
added to it what Webster had not, and what Clay 
had, — the magnetism and grace that melts a million 
souls into his. When I saw him he was sixty-five, — 
lithe as a boy, his every attitude a picture, his every 
gesture grace — he was still all nature; nothing but 
nature seemed to be speaking all over him. It 
would have been delicious to have watched him if 
he had not spoken a word, and all you thought of 
was a greyhound. 

Then he had a voice that covered the gamut. I 
heard him once in Exeter Hall say, "I send my voice 
across the Atlantic, careering like the thunderstorm 
against the breeze, to tell the slave-holder of the 
Carolinas that God's thunderbolts are hot, and to 
remind the bondman that the dawn of his redemp- 
tion is already breaking." You seemed to hear his 
voice reverberating and re-echoing back to London 
from the Rocky Mountains. And then, with the 
slightest possible Irish brogue, he would tell a story 
that would make all Exeter Hall laugh, and the 
next moment tears in his voice, like an old song, and 
five thousand men wept. And all the while no ef- 
fort — he seemed only breathing. 

"As effortless as woodland nooks 
Send violets up, and paint them blue." 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 235 

The Eloquence of Wendell Phillips 

George William Curtis 

Wendell Phillips was the first noteworthy exponent of the quiet, 
conversational style in oratory, as distinguished from the pompous, 
barnstorming style. Try to represent this style as you describe it at 
the opening of the third paragraph. Then note the play of emotions 
throughout the remainder of this paragraph, requiring quick tone- 
changes and offering a fine opportunity for word-coloring. The last 
paragraph is a very strong appeal, requiring slower rate, lower key, 
and combined volume and force. 

Wendell Phillips was distinctively the orator, 
as others were the statesmen, of the anti-slavery 
cause. The tremendous controversy inspired uni- 
versal eloquence, but supreme over all was the 
eloquence of Phillips, as over the harmonious 
tumult of a vast orchestra one clear voice, like a 
lark high-poised in heaven, steadily carries the 
melody. 

His position was unique. He was not a Whig 
or a Democrat, nor the graceful panegyrist of an 
undisputed situation. Both parties denounced him ; 
he must recruit a new party. Public opinion con- 
demned him ; he must win public opinion to achieve 
his purpose. Yet he did not pander to the passion 
of the mob. The crowd did not follow him with 
huzzas. If it tried to drown his voice, he turned 
to the reporters, and over the raging multitude 
calmly said : "Howl on ; I speak to thirty millions 
here." 

He faced his audience with a tranquil mien, 
and a beaming aspect that was never dimmed. He 
spoke, and in the measured cadence of his quiet 



236 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

voice there was intense feeling, but no declamation, 
no passionate appeal, no superficial or feigned emo- 
tion. It was simply colloquy — a gentleman con- 
versing. And this wonderful power, — it was not a 
thunderstorm ; yet somehow and surely the ear and 
heart were charmed. How was it done ? Ah ! how 
did Mozart do it, how Raphael? The secret of the 
rose's sweetness, of the bird's ecstasy, of the sunset's 
glory, — that is the secret of genius and eloquence. 
What was heard, what was seen, was the form of 
noble manhood, the courteous and self-possessed 
tone, the flow of modulated speech, sparkling with 
richness of illustration with apt illusion, and happy 
anecdote and historic parallel, with wit and pitiless 
invective, with melodious pathos, with stinging 
satire with crackling epigram and limpid humor, 
like the bright ripples that play around the sure 
and steady prow of the resistless ship. The divine 
energy of his conviction utterly possessed him, and 
his 

"Pure and eloquent blood 
Spoke in his cheek, and so distinctly wrought 
That one might almost say his body thought." 

Was it Pericles swaying the Athenian multitude? 
Was it Apollo breathing the music of the morning 
from his lips? It was an American patriot, a 
modern son of liberty, with a soul as firm and as 
true as was ever consecrated to unselfish duty, 
pleading with the American conscience for the 
chained and speechless victims of American in- 
humanity. 






■-,. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 237 

The Haywood Trial : Plea for the Defense 

Clarence S. Darrow 



Governor Frank Steunenberg, of Idaho, was killed on the night of 
December 30, 1905, by a bomb which was adjusted to explode as he 
opened the yard-gate to his home. One Harry Orchard turned State's 
evidence and confessed to having placed the bomb at the instigation 
of William D. Haywood, President of the Mine Workers' Union. 
The murder grew out of labor troubles in the Idaho mining region. 
Haywood was indicted for murder, and his trial attracted the atten- 
tion of the whole country. Eminent counsel were engaged for both 
sides. Following is an extract of the plea to the jury on behalf of 
the defendant, who was eventually acquitted. The speech is naturally 
strongly emotional. In the first paragraph Harry Orchard is de- 
nounced, and the rest of the speech is a general plea for th§, laboring 
interests which Haywood, the defendant, represented 



tor tne,j 



Gentlemen, when you are through with this 
trial and have gone back to your homes and think 
of it, pictures will come to you of the figures in 
this case, and amongst the rest, Harry Orchard. 
Everybody will picture him according to how they 
see him. You have seen him here. You have 
heard his story. You have seen him, sleek and 
fat and well fed, facing this jury day by day, ask- 
ing for this man's blood. Do you ever want to 
see him again? Is there any man that can ever 
think of Harry Orchard except in loathing and 
disgust? And yet, gentlemen, upon the testimony 
of this brute you are asked to get rid of Bill Hay- 
wood. You are asked to take his life because down 
in Colorado and up in Coeur d'Alenes he had been 
against the Mine Owner's Association, and because 
he has been organizing the weak, the poor, the 
toilers. 

Gentlemen, it is not for William Haywood alone 



238 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

that I speak. I speak for the poor, for the weak, for 
the weary, for that long line of men who, in darkness 
and despair, have borne the labors of the human race. 
The eyes of the world are upon you — upon you twelve 
men of Idaho to-night. Wherever the English 
lauguage is spoken or wherever any tongue makes 
known the thoughts of men in any portion of the 
civilized world, men are talking and wondering 
and dreaming about the verdict of these twelve men 
that I see before me now. If you kill him your act 
will be applauded by many. If you should decree 
Bill Haywood's death, in the railroad offices of 
our great cities men will applaud your names. If 
you decree his death, amongst the spiders of Wall 
Street will go up paeans of praise for these twelve 
good men and true. In every bank in the world, 
where men hate Haywood because he fights for 
the poor and against that accursed system upon 
which the favored live and grow rich and fat — 
from all those you will receive blessings and un- 
stinted praise. 

But if your verdict should be "not guilty" in this 
case, there are still those who will reverently bow 
their heads and thank these twelve men for the life 
and reputation you have saved. Out on our broad 
prairies where men toil with their hands, out on 
the wide ocean where men are tossed and buffeted 
on the waves, through our mills and factories, and 
down deep under the earth, thousands of men, and 
of women and children — men who labor, men who 
suffer, women and children weary with care and 
toil — these men and these women and these chil- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 239 

dren will kneel to-night and ask their God to guide 
your hearts — these men and these women and these 
little children, the poor, the weak, and the suffering 
of the world, are stretching out their helpless hands 
to this jury in mute appeal for Will Haywood's 
life. 

The Haywood Trial: Plea for the Prosecution 

William E. Borah 

This is an extract from a jury address in behalf of the prosecution 
of William D. Haywood, charged with conspiracy to murder as 
stated in the head-note to the preceding selection. The changing 
emotions and strong climaxes in this speech offer a fine opportunity 
for effective declamation. 

No doubt that many times during this trial you 
have been moved by the eloquence of counsel for 
the defense. They are men of wondrous powers. 
They have been brought here because so rarely 
gifted in power to sway the minds of men. But 
as I listened to the music of their voices and felt 
for a moment the compelling touch of their hyp- 
notic influence, there came back to me all the more 
vividly, when released from the spell, another 
scene — there came to me in more moving tones 
other voices. I remembered again the awful night 
of December 30, 1905, a night which added ten 
years to the life of some who are in this court- 
room now. I felt again its cold and merciless 
chill, faced the drifting snow and peered at last 
into the darkness for the sacred spot where last 
lay my dead friend. I saw men and women stand- 
ing about in the storm and darkness, silent in the 



240 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

presence of the dreadful mystery, and Idaho dis- 
graced and dishonored — I saw murder — no, not 
murder — a thousand times worse than murder, I 
saw anarchy displaying its first bloody triumph to 
Idaho. I saw government by assassination pointing 
to the mangled form of Frank Steunenberg, and 
saying to all — "Look, look, and take notice! Here 
is the fate of all who do their duty to their state 
and the Government." 

Counsel for the defense have tried to make you 
believe that we would have professional distinction 
at the cost of human liberty or life. There has 
been something in this cause to make a man forget 
all professional pride. I only want what you want 
— human life made safe — assassination put out of 
business. I only want what you want — the gate 
which leads to our homes, the yard-gate whose 
inward swing tells of the returning husband and 
father, shielded and guarded by the courage and 
manhood of Idaho judges. He who takes life in 
the malice of the heart forfeits his right to live — 
for the sake of society, for the sake of all men 
who love their fellowmen and want to live with 
them in peace — he forfeits his right to live. 

If this be true where individual man slays but 
another, ten thousand times more true should it 
be where men in hatred and malice, in stealth and 
in secrecy, combine, confederate, and agree to carry 
on and commit indiscriminate murder, where men 
defy law, denounce society, trample upon all rights, 
human and divine, and thirst for the blood of all 
who chance to thwart or oppose their criminal 



: 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 241 

purposes. Anarchy, pale, bloodless, restless, hungry 
demon from the crypts of hell — fighting for a foot- 
hold in Idaho ! What shall we do ? This is the 
question. Shall we crush it, shall we make it un- 
safe for the disciples of this creed to do business 
here, or shall we palter and trim and compromise 
and invite to choose other victims? These are the 
questions to be settled by you and you alone. In 
the court of your own conscience the verdict must 
be worked out, and I must leave it all with you. 

The Apostle of a New Idea 

Herbert S. Bigelow 

This is an extract from an address on "Calf Paths," being one of 
numerous addresses published by the People's Church and Town 
Meeting Society, of Cincinnati, Ohio. This declamation is climactic 
in construction: the first two paragraphs contain an illustrative story; 
the point of the story is expounded in the third paragraph; and the 
last paragraph drives the point home in a strong appeal. 

At Ephesus, a certain man, named Demetrius, 
a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, 
brought no little business unto the craftsmen ; whom 
he gathered together, with the workingmen of like 
occupation, and said: "Sirs, ye know that by this 
business we have our wealth. And ye see and hear 
that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout 
all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away 
such people, saying that they are no gods that are 
made with hands." 

And when they heard this they were filled with 
wrath and cried out saying, "Great is Diana of the 
Ephesians !" And they rushed with on accord into 



242 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

the theater; and some cried one thing and some 
another; for the assembly was in confusion; and 
the greater part knew not wherefore they were 
come together. 

The history of the world can be boiled down to 
this story of Paul and Demetrius and the silver- 
smiths and mob at Ephesus. We have always the 
same contending forces — Paul, the apostle of a new 
idea; Demetrius and the silversmiths, whose busi- 
ness is threatened by that idea; and the mob that 
joins in the hue and cry against the apostle without 
knowing why. Progress is the resultant of these 
three forces — special interest and ignorance on the 
one side, and, on the other, the power of truth. 
This is the necessary formula for the right under- 
standing of our own or any other age. 

Men tell us of our natural resources and the 
need of their conservation, of the power that is 
wasted every day, of the wealth that is lost in fire 
and flood, in raging rivers and plunging falls and 
arid plains. But greater than all these resources 
combined is the untapped reservoir of truth, the 
infinite possibility, the incomprehensible power that 
is yet to spring from the unfettered brain of man. 
They who loosen the grip of the past, they who 
wear away the obstruction of custom and tradition, 
they who inspire man with faith in himself, teach 
him the courage to think and to do, they who help 
to break the chains of prejudice and superstition, 
of fear and unbelief, — they are the greatest con- 
servators of all, and the wealth of mind which 
they open up is the inexhaustible resource of man. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 243 

Shall the Monroe Doctrine be Abandoned? 

John Mellen Thurston 

This is an extract from a speech delivered in the United States 
Senate, January 28, 1896, and was occasioned by the Venezuela 
Boundary Dispute, President Cleveland having sent the British 
government a message espousing the claims of Venezuela, — a message 
that was tantamount to war had not Great Britain yielded. The last 
three paragraphs of this declamation are markedly "jingoistic," and 
require the very strongest force, with ringing, explosive tones. 

Mr. President, it is gravely argued that our 
country has outgrown the necessity for any further 
enforcement of the Monroe doctrine. It is urged 
that the United States has waxed strong and pow- 
erful ; that we no longer need fear any foreign 
interference in our affairs ; and that we cannot be 
affected or disturbed by South American controver- 
sies. It is, therefore, insisted that we can now 
afford to let the other American Republics look out 
for themselves, and that we should stand supinely 
by while foreign powers overawe and outrage our 
weak and defenseless neighbors. 

I am not unmindful of the seriousness and gravity 
of the present situation. We are calling a halt 
upon that settled policy of aggression and dominion 
which has characterized the extension of the British 
Empire from the hour in which her first adventur- 
ous prow turned to unknown seas. The history 
of the English people is an almost unbroken series 
of military achievements. Her navies are upon 
every sea, her armies in every clime. No nation 
can afford lightly to challenge her purposes or 
arouse her stubborn pride. But does this furnish 



244 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

any reason why Americans should abandon any 
settled policy of the United States, or retire from 
any position which the honor of this Republic and 
the welfare of America require that we should 
assume ? 

Standing upon the floor of the American Senate 
and knowing whereof I speak, I say to the people 
of Great Britain that the grave issues which have 
been settled by brave men upon American battle- 
fields can never be reopened. Sir, there is no divi- 
sion of sentiment in the United States. Let but a 
single drumbeat be heard upon our coast, announc- 
ing the approach of a foreign foe, and there will 
spring to arms in North and South the grandest 
army the world has ever known, animated by a 
deathless loyalty to their country's flag and march- 
ing on to the mingled and inspiring strains of 
"Dixie" and "Yankee Doodle." 

Sir, believing that the honor of my country is 
involved, that the hour calls for the highest ex- 
pression of loyalty and patriotism, calmly confident 
of the verdict of posterity, reverently calling God 
to witness the sincerity of my purpose, I shall vote 
for the resolution reported by the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs. I shall vote for it not as an affront 
to any other nation, but to uphold the dignity of 
my own. I shall vote for it in this time of pro- 
found tranquility, convinced that peace with honor 
can be preserved. But, sir, I would vote for it just 
as surely were we already standing in the awful 
shadow of declared war. I would vote for it were 
the navies of all Europe thundering at our harbors. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 245 

I would vote for it were the shells of British 
battleships bursting above the dome of the nation's 
Capitol. I would vote for it and would maintain 
it at all hazards and at any cost, with the last dollar, 
with the last man ; yea though it might presage the 
coming of a mighty conflict that would call forth 
all the resources of our country and all the latent 
patriotism of our people. 

Liberty Under Law 

Wendell Phillips Stafford 

This selection is taken from a speech delivered at the annual ban- 
quet of the New England Society of New York City, December, 1913. 
The first paragraph contains illustrative references, to be delivered 
in a conversational style. The next paragraph makes the application. 
Each of the succeeding paragraphs develops a new topic. The con- 
cluding paragraph is particularly strong both in thought and phrasing, 
and requires moderate rate and sincere, forcible expression. 

I suppose you have all read that most delightful 
of romances, "Lorna Doone." If you have you 
will remember the satisfaction you felt when spunky 
little Ruth Huckaback overturned the doctor's 
bleeding-basin, and sent the doctor himself about 
his business before he had quite bled the great 
John Ridd to death. Very few physicians of the 
present day but would admit that their profession 
did need the correction of common sense at that 
period of its progress. Even theology once needed 
it. I remember the glee with which the famous 
Liberal minister, Cyrus Bartol, would quote the 
reply of the Yankee unregenerate : "If God had 
made him to be damned, he guessed He had made 
him so he could stand it." 



246 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Now the law is no exception to this rule. On 
the contrary, no profession so needs to be corrected 
by the common sense of daily life, for its very 
province is to deal with the affairs of life. The 
questions that engage it are questions that cannot 
be settled in the closet ; the decision must commend 
itself to ordinary minds. The best judges instruct 
juries in their own language, the language of the 
farm, the shop, and the street. It is really neces- 
sary to do so to secure the best results. And this 
necessity for stating the law in plain and simple 
fashion is a powerful factor in keeping the law 
itself what it ought to be, plain and simple and 
just in its application. 

Above all things else, the people need to look 
upon the law as their law, and to resent any dis- 
obedience of its mandates as a defiance of their 
will. Ideas have ruled the world and men are 
only puppets in comparison. Nothing could be 
better for the people of this land to-day than to be 
taken possession of by the idea that law, the ex- 
pression of their own united personality, is a thing 
noble and inviolable, worthy of every service and 
of any sacrifice, and that it must and shall be obeyed. 
There never was a great nation that did not rever- 
ence the law. There can be no great nation without 
cohesion; there can be no cohesion without law. 

Liberty under law — that is the noblest motto 
"ever molded by the lips of man." The world 
has garnered all its labors, all its triumphs, all its 
sacrifices in that simple phrase. It holds all memo- 
ries. There is not a tear that has been shed by 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 247 

agonized martyrs, there is not a drop of blood that 
has flowed from the sides of dying heroes, that is 
not treasured in it. It holds all hopes. There is 
not a dream of social happiness that hovers on the 
horizon of the human mind to-day but was born 
of its inspiration and will be realized only through 
its workings. The liberty of the one — that is mon- 
archy. The liberty of the few — that is aristocracy. 
The lawless liberty of each — that is anarchy and 
ends in the despotism of the strongest hand. But 
the liberty we worship is the liberty of each, bounded 
always, and bounded only, by the liberty of all. 
It is liberty under law. It is the freedom of the 
race. That idea by itself, once let it take firm 
hold upon the masses, would be enough to make us 
a mighty nation, yes, an unconquerable people. 
Without the unifying force of that conception, 
though we pile our wealth in mountains, we shall 
be but a rope of sand. 



The Efficient Optimist 

Edward Earle Purinton 

This is an extract from an article in the Independent, November 
22, 191 5. It has been said that effective public speaking is "thinking 
aloud," and this truth applies with peculiar force to this declamation. 
The conversational style should be used in delivery, but "the con- 
versational raised to its highest power." 

Many people have a notion that an optimist is 
a cheerful, happy-go-lucky sort of person, empty of 
cares, burdens or problems, smooth and sleek and 
well fed, favored of gods and men. Believe it not ! 



248 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

All the real optimists I know have been through 
battles, worries, woes, privation, that would tear 
the heart out of an ordinary man a hundred times 
over. Not the man who always smiles is the op- 
timist, but the man who can always turn frowns 
and tears into smiles ! The consciousness that 
everything must finally come right is not born in 
a moment; we must first consciously do the thing 
we know to be right, thousands of times, and must 
watch ourselves gain a step of ground each time, 
before we can form the habit of trusting the Tight- 
ness of the cosmic plan. The days of blind faith 
are over, the days of intelligent action are here. 
An efficient optimist hopes entirely without reason, 
but works entirely with it. 

How does optimism aid efficiency? By renewing, 
refreshing, sustaining and strengthening our bodily 
physique, mental constitution, moral character and 
psychic reserve. The path to any great success is 
lined with many small failures; and the assurance 
of ultimate success lies in the perception to see and 
the power to use the lessons from these failures 
and to go higher because of them. This perception 
and this power come only to the optimist. 

The world was against Newton when he pro- 
claimed the law of gravitation; against Harvey 
when he discovered the circulation of the blood; 
against Wagner when he wrote his epics of har- 
mony ; against Franklin when he searched the skies 
for the secret of electricity; against Darwin when 
he announced the law of evolution; against Bell 
when he made the first telephone; against the 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 249 

Wrights when they labored on the airship ; against 
Burbank when he dared to invent new species of 
plants and flowers ; against Froebel when he taught 
how to understand children better. These men all 
had to create in themselves an optimism strong 
enough to carry them through and beyond the 
world's ignorance, blindness, inertness, fear, hate, 
opposition. And the law still holds. The greater 
your work and the finer your message, the more 
you will be antagonized. Your only safeguard is 
in scientific optimism. 

What does scientific optimism do for the human 
machine? It promotes good digestion and a corre- 
sponding sense of buoyancy and cheer ; it straightens 
the backbone, physical and moral ; it assures deep 
breathing and the liberation of more energy; it 
favors sound sleep and repose at all times ; it lends 
force, clearness and alertness to the brain because 
of a purer blood stream and a surer life purpose; 
it empowers the will by enlargement and establish- 
ment of one's faith; it steadies the nerves for a 
calm, firm handling of the crises, problems and 
duties of everyday life; it provides the key to a 
storehouse of moral dynamics, available only when 
we see, think, believe and hope for the best ; it 
expands our influence and makes hosts of friends ; 
it opens communications with higher, spiritual 
avenues of original conception and power, by means 
of which the ordinary man becomes great, and 
every man a conscious master of himself, his work, 
and his destiny. 



250 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

A Message to Garcia 

Elbert Hubbard 

The author of this selection, who went down on the ill-fated 
Lusitania, was discussing the incident related below, so the story 
goes, at the supper table one night with his family. He was so im- 
pressed with the incident and its lesson that he at once retired to 
his study and wrote the article from which the following is an ex- 
tract. It was first published in the Philistine for March, 1899. The 
theme of the article, re-enforced by the "punch" of the author's 
English, struck a responsive chord on the part of the public. Mil- 
lions of copies of the article were later printed and distributed, 
and it was translated into several foreign languages. It has also had 
a record-breaking run as a declamation, being a favorite in prize 
contests. The delivery, though forceful on the whole, is relieved by 
many changes; there is opportunity for great variety, especially in 
the first five paragraphs. The first three are introductory and should 
be given in a conversational style, the quotation in even a colloquial 
style. Bear in mind that the theme is the thing to be emphasized 
throughout; that is: honor to the man who arrives, who does things, 
and who acts on his own initiative. 

When war broke out between Spain and the 
United States, it was very necessary to communi- 
cate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. 
Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses 
of Cuba — no one knew where. No mail nor tele- 
graph message could reach him. The President 
must secure his cooperation, and quickly. 

What to do ? 

Some one said to the President, "There's a fellow 
by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if 
anybody can." 

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be 
delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name 
of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil- 
skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days 
landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 251 

boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks 
came out on the other side of the island, having 
traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered 
his letter to Garcia, — are things I have no special 
desire now to tell in detail. 

The point I wish to make is this : McKinley gave 
Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia ; Rowan 
took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" 
By the Eternal ! there is a man whose form should 
be cast in deathless bronze and that statue placed 
in every college of the land. It is not book-learning 
young men need, not instruction about this and that, 
but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause 
them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concen- 
trate their energies: do the thing — "Carry a mes- 
sage to Garcia !" 

General Garcia is now dead, but there are other 
Garcias. No man, who has endeavored to carry out 
an enterprise where many hands were needed, but 
has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecil- 
ity of the average man — the inability or unwilling- 
ness to concentrate on a thing and do it. And this 
incapacity for independent action, this moral stupid- 
ity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to 
cheerfully catch hold and lift, are things that put 
pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will 
not act for themselves, what will they do when the 
benefit of their effort is for all ? 

My heart goes out to the man who does his work 
when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at 
home. And the man who, when given a letter for 
Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking 



252 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention 
of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing 
aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor 
has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization 
is one long, anxious search for just such individuals. 
Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his 
kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let 
him go. He is wanted in every city, town, and vil- 
lage — in every office, shop, store, and factory. The 
world cries out for such : he is needed, and deeded 
badly — the man who can carry a message to Garcia. 



The National Flag 

Henry Ward Beecher 

This declamation, which is an adaptation of a speech by Beecher, 
presents vivid pictures and varied emotions, to be voiced in dynamic, 
ringing tones. By gradual and natural steps lead up to the strong 
climax in the paragraph next to the last. 

I have seen the glories of art and architecture, 
and mountain and river; I have seen the sunset on 
Jungf rau, and the full moon rise over Mount Blanc ; 
but the fairest vision on which these eyes ever 
looked was the flag of my country in a foreign 
land. Beautiful as a flower to those who love it, 
terrible as a meteor to those who hate it, it is the 
symbol of the power and glory, and the honor of 
one hundred million Americans. 

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, 
sees not the flag, but the nation itself. When the 
French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we see France. 
When the new-found Italian flag is unfurled, we see 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 253 

unified Italy. When the united crosses of St. 
Andrew and St. George, on a fiery ground, set forth 
the banner of old England, we see not the cloth 
merely; there rises up before the mind the idea of 
that great monarchy. 

If one asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to 
him: It means just what Concord and Lexington 
meant, what Bunker Hill meant. It means the whole 
glorious Revolutionary war. It means all that the 
Constitution of our people, organizing for justice, 
for liberty and for happiness, meant. Its stripes of 
alternate red and white proclaim the original union 
of thirteen states to maintain the Declaration of 
Independence. Its stars, white on a field of blue, 
proclaim that union of states constituting our na- 
tional constellation. The two together signify 
union, past and present. The very colors have a 
language which was officially recognized by our 
fathers. White is for purity; red, for valor; blue, 
for justice ; and all together — bunting, stripes, stars 
and colors, blazing in the sky — make the flag of our 
country, to be cherished by all our hearts, to be up- 
held by all our hands. 

Under this banner rode Washington and his 
armies. Before it Burgoyne laid down his arms. 
It waved on the highlands at West Point. It 
streamed in light over the soldiers' head at Valley 
Forge and at Morristown. It crossed the waters 
rolling with ice at Trenton, and when its stars 
gleamed in the cold morning with victory, a new 
day of hope dawned on the despondency of this 
nation. 



254 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

I like to think of our soldiers and sailors as de- 
fenders of the flag, and I like to think of the flag 
as our defender from foes within or foes without. 
During the Cuban revolution of '73, an American 
citizen was imprisoned, and by a Spanish court- 
martial sentenced to be shot as a spy. The Amer- 
ican consul at Havana demanded a suspension of the 
sentence pending an investigation, which was per- 
emptorily refused, and preparations for the execu- 
tion of the court-martial's finding were hurriedly 
made. The prisoner was led forth, and a company 
of Spanish soldiers stood ready, at the word of com- 
mand, to execute the death warrant. At this critical 
moment appeared the American consul and, winding 
about the body of the prisoner the stars and stripes, 
turned to the Spanish officer and said : "Now shoot 
if you dare !" The silence of the Spanish guns was 
the only reply. 

And so in any foreign country, if our flag in very 
truth be the emblem of national honor and inter- 
national fair-dealing, then may the American citizen 
rest secure beneath its protecting folds in conscious 
assurance that "thrice is he armed who hath his 
quarrel just." 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 255 

Texas — Undivided and Indivisible 

Joseph W. Bailey 

This is an extract from a speech delivered in the United States 
Senate in January, 1906. The principal transitions are indicated 
by the paragraphing, but on the whole this speech has the well- 
rounded periods of the oratorical style, and should be delivered in 
moderate rate, with voluminous and forceful tones. 

Throughout this discussion we have heard many 
and varied comments upon the magnitude of Texas. 
Some senators have expressed a friendly solicitude 
that we would some day avail ourselves of the 
privilege accorded us by the resolutions under 
which we entered the Union, and divide our state 
into five states. 

Mr. President, if Texas had contained a popula- 
tion in I845 sufficient to have justified her admission 
as five states, it is my opinion that she would have 
been admitted. I will even go further than that; 
I will say that if Texas were now five states, there 
would not be five men in either state who would 
seriously propose the consolidation into one. But, 
sir, Texas is not divided now, and under the provi- 
dence of God, she will not be divided until the end 
of time. Her position is exceptional, and excites in 
the minds of all her citizens a just and natural pride. 
She is now the greatest of all the states in area, and 
certain to become the greatest of all in population, 
wealth, and influence. With such a primacy assured 
her, she could not be expected to surrender it, even 
to obtain increased representation in this body. 

But, Mr. President, while from her proud emi- 



256 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

nence to-day Texas looks upon a future as bright 
with promise as ever beckoned a people to follow 
where fate and fortune lead, it is not so much the 
promise of the future as it is the memory of the 
glorious past which appeals to her against division. 
She could partition her fertile valleys and broad 
prairies, she could apportion her thriving towns and 
growing cities, she could distribute her splendid 
population and wonderful resources, but she could 
not divide the fadeless glory of those days that are 
past and gone. To which of her daughters, sir, 
could she assign, without irreparable injustice to all 
the others, the priceless inheritance of the Alamo, 
Goliad, and San Jacinto? To which could she be- 
jqueath the name of Houston, Austin, Fannin, Bowie, 
and Crockett ? Sir, the fame of these men, and their 
less illustrious but not less worthy comrades, cannot 
be severed. 

The world has never seen a sublimer courage or 
a more unselfish patriotism than that which illumi- 
nates almost every page in the early history of Texas. 
Students may know more about other battlefields, 
but none is consecrated with the blood of braver 
men than those who fell at Goliad. Historians may 
not record it as one of the decisive battles of the 
world, but the victory of the Texans at San Jacinto 
is destined to exert a greater influence upon the hap- 
piness of the human race than all the conflicts that 
established or subverted the petty kingdoms of the 
ancient world. Poets have not yet immortalized it 
with their enduring verse, but the Alamo is more 
resplendent with her heroic sacrifice than was Ther- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 257 

mopylae itself, because while "Thermopylae had its 
messenger of defeat, the Alamo had none." 

Mr. President, if I may be permitted to borrow 
Webster's well-known apostrophe to Liberty and 
Union, I would say of Texas; She is one and in- 
separable, now and forever. 



Books 

E. P. Whipple 

The wide sweep of thought and the appeal to high ideals by means 
of concrete illustrations, render this selection a very effective one for 
declamation. 

As the lamp of Learning began to throw gleams 
of light through the darkness of mediaeval times, 
there was to be a stern death-grapple between the 
heavy arm and the ethereal thought; between that 
which was and that which ought to be; for there 
was a great spirit abroad, which dungeons could 
not confine nor oceans check. It was a spirit whose 
path lay through the great region of ideas; whose 
dominion was over the mind. 

From the hour of the invention of printing, books, 
and not kings, were to rule the world. Weapons 
forged in the mind, keen-edged, and brighter than 
a sunbeam, were to supplant the sword and battle- 
axe. Books ! lighthouses built on the sea of time ! 
Books ! by whose sorcery the whole pageantry of 
the world's history moves in solemn procession be- 
fore our eyes. From their pages great souls look 
down in all their grandeur, undimmed by the faults 
and follies of earthly existence, consecrated by time. 



258 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

In that world "no divinity hedges a king ;" no acci- 
dent of rank ennobles a dunce or shields a knave. 
Reason is confined within none of the limits which 
trammel it in life. There things are called by their 
right names. Our lips give not the lie to our hearts. 
We bend the knee only to the great and good; we 
despise only the despicable; honor only the honor- 
able. 

In the world of books we can select companions 
from among the most richly gifted of the sons of 
God. When everything else fails; when the world 
of forms and shows appears a two-edged lie, which 
seems but is not ; when all our earth-clinging hopes 
melt into nothingness, we are still not without 
friends. In their immortal countenances we see no 
change. They dignify low fortune and humble life 
with their kingly presence, and people solitude with 
shapes more glorious than ever glistened in court 
or palace. 

Well might Milton exclaim in that impassioned 
speech for the "Liberty of Unlicensed Printing" ; 
"Who kills a man kills a reasoning creature — God's 
image; but who destroys a good book kills reason 
itself." Many a man lives a burden upon the earth ; 
but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a mas- 
ter spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose for 
a life beyond life. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 259 

The Death of Garfield 

James G. Blaine 

This is an extract from an oration delivered before both houses of 
Congress on February 26, 1882, Mr. Blaine having been Secretary 
of State under President Garfield. The oration has established itself 
as an American classic. Garfield was assassinated at the station of 
the Pennsylvania railway, in Washington, as he was boarding a 
train for his summer vacation. In order to appreciate fully the 
allusions in the third paragraph, it should be remembered that after 
Garfield realized he could not recover, he expressed a desire to be 
taken to the seaside. For this purpose a specially constructed car 
was provided, and he was conveyed to a summer home on the New 
Jersey coast, where the end finally came. Slow rate, the tender tones 
of pathos, due pauses, especially at the close, are essential for effec- 
tive delivery. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 2, 1881, Presi- 
dent Garfield was a contented and happy man — not 
in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly 
happy. And surely, if happiness can ever come 
from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that 
quiet July morning Garfield may well have been a 
happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; 
no premonition of danger clouded his sky. One 
moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years 
stretching peacefully out before him; the next day 
he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary 
weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. 

Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. 
For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and 
wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was 
thrust from the full tide of this world's interests, 
from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the 
visible presence of death — and he did not quail. 
Not alone for the one short moment in which, 



260 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly 
aware of its relinquishment, but through days of 
deadly languor, through weeks of agony that was 
not less agony because silently borne, with clear 
sight and calm courage, he looked into his open 
grave. 

As the end drew near, his early craving for the 
sea returned. The stately mansion of power had 
become to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and 
he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from 
its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and 
its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great 
people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for heal- 
ing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, 
within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of 
its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly 
lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully 
upon the ocean's changing wonders : on its far sails, 
whitening in the morning light ; on its restless waves, 
rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the 
noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arching 
low to the horizon ; on the serene and shining path- 
way of the stars. 

Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic 
meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may 
know. Let us believe that in the silence of the 
receding world he heard the great waves breaking 
on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted 
brow the breath of the eternal morning, 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 261 

The Man and the Soil 

Jo hi M. Thomas 

This is an extract from a speech by the President of Middlebury 
College (Vermont) delivered at the annual banquet of the New 
England Society of New York City, December, 19 10. The thought 
and its expression, if delivered with earnestness and feeling, will 
appeal to any audience. 

It is said that the New England of the present is 
far to the westward ; that the six Yankee common- 
wealths have done their work, and are no longer 
needed to furnish New England ideas to the nation. 
It has been said, I believe, on a similar occasion 
here, that the prairies have caught the lessons of 
the Pilgrims, and henceforth they can muster the 
men whom Liberty needs for her soldiery. But I 
have a notion that there is a relation between an 
idea and the soil which nourished it; that if you 
would preserve for the benefit of the future any 
political creed, or any cluster of religious ideals, or 
any particular type of manhood, you must preserve 
them on the soil where they had their birth; that 
political and spiritual convictions are not the same 
when they are transplanted to another region. 

You may remind me that the Scotsman is ever 
Scotch, wherever in the world you find him; un- 
comfortable if he is orthodox, and reasonably dis- 
satisfied with himself if he is not. But that is be- 
cause he can ever sing 

"My heart's in the highlands, 
My heart is not here." 

He knows that the heather is over the sea, and he 
warms the smile you feel but do not otherwise 



262 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

perceive upon the purple glow across the far leagues, 
and nourishes his canny dourness on the shaggy 
rocks that fade never from his dreams. It is be- 
cause Scotland is still Scotch, persistent in the 
homeland in its national traits, that the sweet accent 
lingers in every Scottish home beside the seven seas. 

Up in the Northland, in rural New England, is 
the fireside of the American home. There Ameri- 
can manhood came first to self-consciousness. There 
the nation learned the resolute independence and 
self-reliance, the habit of reasoning about things, 
the knack of doing things in the easiest way, the 
love of justice for others as well as for ourselves, 
which stand before the world as American traits. 

It is a sad day for any man when the old home- 
stead no longer shelters the piety and worth that 
gave it standing in the neighborhood. The gods 
have ever been attached to localities. Spiritual 
treasures are not quite the same when they are 
transplanted to another territory. Kansas may be 
God's country in good time, but never in all the 
millenniums will she be Massachusetts. Every faith 
treasures beyond price the possession of its shrine, 
and it is no mistaken instinct. Therefore, it were 
a sad day for America when rural New England, 
the shrine of American worth, loses the manhood 
which it has wrought out as the symbol of American 
character. The nation needs the men who are to 
go forth from those valleys still. She needs yet 
more the spirit that will abide there as long as the 
smoke curls upward of an autumn morning from 
the little white houses on the hillside. 






Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 263 

There are those who love those hills and valleys 
still, and are glad to make their homes among them. 
We feel weighted with a trust in behalf of the 
nation for the preservation on the New England 
soil of all that is best in the manhood New England 
has reared. 

We are watchers of a beacon whose light must never die ; 
We are guardians of an altar 'neath the silence of the sky ; 
The rocks yield founts of courage, struck forth as by Thy 

rod; 
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee, O God, our 

Father's God. 

The Pioneers 

John IV. Springer 

To those who know the ranch or plains country, or who have in 
any way come in contact with America's Great Out-of-Doors, this 
selection, which requires unfeigned enthusiasm and sustained force 
in delivery will make a strong appeal. 

How we love these old weatherbeaten frontier 
fathers. How we reverence them for the early 
struggles, the hardships and the privations they ren- 
dered that you and I might occupy a land second to 
no section in this magnificent country we enjoy. 
The old days of the trail ! How we look back to 
them as halcyon days of the cattle business. The 
old boys, the old chuck wagon, the old ponies, with 
their wondrous hieroglyphics burned all over them ; 
the songs of the cowboys and their marvelous 
stories around the camp fires, from the gulf far 
away and the prairies over the hills, along the 
mountain fastnesses, ever on north to the ranch 



264 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

limits of Montana, this charming stretch of plains, 
rivers, hills and valleys was the happy abode of the 
pioneer cowman. Can you reckon to-day what we 
owe these pioneers? Not only to these, but to the 
old mothers, who left the States and the old homes 
and those they loved, and moved into the little old 
sod houses and brightened up the dug-outs and the 
more pretentious log houses up and down the land 
occupied by the flocks and herds. Their stories 
live in memory like a benediction. 

To-day it is appropriate that we sweep in memory 
the valley of the Mississippi and the valley of the 
Missouri, the plains of the Canadian, and the Pecos, 
and the Rio Grande up and over the hills of the 
Rockies, and on to the Little Missouri of the 
Dakotas, away and across the valley of Salt Lake 
to the rivers of Oregon and the sunlit fields of far- 
away California. What Elysian fields ! In the 
dreamless solitude of the camp fire you have 
watched the flickering embers blaze up and then die 
away, and with tired limbs but happy heart you 
have drifted down the tides of sleep while ten 
thousand times ten thousand stars stood guard over 
pour peaceful slumbers. 

Such scenes as I have pictured mark the cow 
camps of the mighty West. There, where you find 
the big-hearted men, they draw their fountain of 
charity from their close contact with Nature and 
Nature's God. What a limitless field for fiction, 
for the stories of the brave, the dauntless pioneers 
who traversed the valley and hillsides of this great 
stretch of producing territory. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 265 

The American pioneer! The stockman and the 
stockmen of days agone blazed the way for our 
princely heritage. Their sufferings find their antith- 
esis in our present happiness. Their deprivations, 
by the evolution of an inexorable fate, mete out 
plenty and prosperity to us who have succeeded 
them. All hail the home-builders of the American 
Union ! 

Southern Types 

Thomas Watt Gregory 

This is taken from a speech that Mr. Gregory, U. S. Attorney- 
General, delivered at the annual banquet of the Southern Society of 
New York City, February, 1915. Tell the story contained in the 
first paragraph in a natural conversational manner, not failing to 
bring out effectively the climax at the end. There follows a transi- 
tional paragraph, applying the point of the story and leading up to 
the serious note struck in the paragraph following, which should be 
delivered with sustained earnestness and force. The appeal in the 
last paragraph should be given with real feeling; the touch of senti- 
ment and the word-pictures will require slow rate and time-emphasis 
for the most effective delivery. 

Those of you who have not been away from the 
South so long that you have forgotten everything 
of any real value you ever knew will recall the fact 
that the habitat or range of the negro is usually 
within a circle with a diameter of not over ten miles. 
Not infrequently a negro is born on a plantation, 
lives his three score years and ten, and dies without 
having been twenty-five miles from the place of his 
birth. I once knew a negro who left his range for 
good and sufficient reasons, and about two car- 
lengths ahead of the sheriff. Speed and luck being 
on his side, he loped off about fifty miles and estab- 



266 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

lished a new habitat in a strange community. There 
he held himself out as a preacher, built up a large 
congregation, and was becoming quite prosperous. 
One Sunday night on mounting the pulpit he was 
horrified to observe on the front bench a negro from 
his own range who knew every detail of his past 
career. He was not quite sure whether the strange 
negro recognized him or not. He watched him 
carefully during the preliminary hymns and an- 
nouncements without getting any light on the sub- 
ject. Finally, he got up to begin his sermon and 
said: "My bredren, it had been my purpose to-night 
to preach to you on de pure in heart and how dey 
shall rest in Abraham's bosom, but since I got in de 
pulpit de Holy Spirit have whispered to me and 
said: 'Nigger, don't you preach on dat text, you 
take anoder text,' and so I is going to preach to you 
de sixteenth verse of de fifth chapter of Isaiah (and 
at this point he fixed his eagle eye on the stray 
negro) which reads as follows: 'If you think you 
know me, say nothing, and I'll see you later/ " 

There are too many strays present to-night from 
my former ranges for me to get my eye on all of 
them at the same time, but I trust that they will 
observe the spirit of the text, and I promise to 
reciprocate by being equally reticent as to their past. 
And now having thus shaken hands, and forgotten 
all unpleasant reminiscences, as prize fighters do, let 
us proceed to business. 

There are many things of which we, as a people, 
may well be proud; but in his heart of hearts the 
real Southerner specially cherishes respect for 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 267 

women, admiration for truth and personal courage, 
and contempt for money as a prop to social eleva- 
tion. These have been our household gods — not 
always followed, but always honored. We may be- 
lieve many things which are not true, but so long 
as we believe them to be true they are true so far as 
we are concerned, and influence our daily lives ac- 
cordingly. These thoughts have armed our patriots 
on many a field and inspired our statesmen in manjl 
a contest. They still constitute the world of 
"power" ; they still develop men as in the olden 
time. 

Let me admonish you, therefore, not to forget, 
and let not your children forget — the land from 
whence you came. Go back now and then, and, like 
Antaeus of old, draw new strength from contact 
with mother earth. Far away on some Sewanee 
River of your youth the magnolia and jasmine still 
bloom, the wild rose still climbs the zig-zag fence, 
and the simmon seed and sandy bottom still nourish 
the 'possum and yellow yam. There the lamp of 
hospitality still burns and the light of good fellowship 
shines, and within the family circle are still 
cherished those ancestral faiths which have helped 
to make the nation great. 



268 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Revolutions 

Wendell Phillips 

Like all of Phillips' speeches, this declamation will speak itself. 
The thought is in constant motion. Note the transitions where the 
delivery should pause and change. Tell the story of Napoleon in a 
natural manner, making true to life the characters in the drama. 
The real climax of the last paragraph comes on "master"; the 
sentence following simply sums up or restates the theme. 

Whenever you meet a dozen earnest men 
pledged to a new idea you meet the beginning of a 
new revolution. Revolutions are not made, they 
come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an 
oak. It comes out of the past; its foundations are 
laid far back. The child feels ; he grows into a man 
and thinks ; another, perhaps, speaks ; and the world 
acts out the thought. And this is the history of 
modern society. Men undervalue great reform 
movements because they imagine you can always 
put your finger on some illustrious moment in his- 
tory and say: "Here commenced the great change 
which has come over the nation." 

Not so. The beginning of the great changes is 
like the rise of the Mississippi. You must stoop and 
gather away the pebbles to find it. But soon it 
swells broader and broader ; bears on its bosom the 
navies of a mighty republic ; forms the gulf ; and 
divides a continent. 

There is a story of Napoleon which illustrates my 
meaning. We are apt to trace the control of France 
to some noted victory, to the time when he encamped 
in the Tuileries ; or when he dissolved the assembly 
by the stamp of his foot. He reigned in fact when 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 269 

his hand first felt the helm of the vessel of state, 
and that was far back of the time when he had con- 
quered Italy, or his name had been echoed over two 
continents. It was on the day 500 irresolute men 
were met in the assembly which called itself, and 
pretended to be, the government of France. They 
heard that the mob of Paris were coming next 
morning, 30,000 strong, to turn them, as was usual 
in those days, out of doors. And where did this 
seemingly great power go for its support and 
refuge? They sent Tallien to seek out a boy lieu- 
tenant — the shadow of an officer — so thin and pallid 
that when he was placed on the stand before them, 
the President of the Assembly, fearful, if the fate of 
France rested on the shrunken form, the ashen 
cheek, before him, that all hope was gone, asked: 
"Young man, can you protect the assembly I" The 
stern lip of the Corsican boy parted only to say, "I 
always do what I undertake." Then and there 
Napoleon ascended his throne; and the next day 
from the steps of St. Roche thundered forth the can- 
non which taught the mob of Paris, for the first time, 
that it had a master. That was the commencement 
of the empire. 



270 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Thirtieth Man 

John H. Finley 

This is taken from a baccalaureate address delivered by Mr. Finley 
in June, 191 1, he being at that time President of the College of the 
City of New York. Many students may find this address refreshing, 
since it is something new, — showing originality in the treatment. 
Earnest, straight talk is the style required for its delivery. Be sure 
to make your hearers grasp the thought of the first paragraph by a 
deliberate rate and explanatory emphasis, else all the rest of the 
speech will be lost. The action and hurly-burly of the second para- 
graph requires a rather rapid rate. Slower rate and deeper emotions 
belong with the combined exposition and appeal contained in the 
last two paragraphs. 

It has been estimated that in thickly settled com- 
munities one person in about every thirty adults 
is a public servant, that is, is going up and down in 
some vicarious capacity for the other twenty-nine. 
The ratio is higher or lower according to the degree 
of socialized life in a community, but let us ar- 
bitrarily take this ratio and call the public servant 
the thirtieth man. 

This "thirtieth man" sweeps the streets of the 
city. He is pontifex of the country roads. He 
lights the lamps when the natural lights of heaven 
go out, and extinguishes the fires of the earth. 
With one hand he gathers our letters of affection 
and business and with the other distributes them in 
the remotest cabins on the mountains. He weighs 
the wind, reads the portents of the clouds, gives 
augury of the heat and cold. He makes wells in the 
valleys, he fills the pools with water. He tastes the 
milk before the city child may drink it ; he tests and 
labels the food in the stores and shops ; he corrects 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 271 

false balances and short measures. He keeps watch 
over forest and stream ; gives warning of rocks and 
shoals to men at sea and of plague and poison to 
those on land. He is warden of fish and bird and 
wild beast; he is host to the homeless and shelter- 
less; he is guardian and nurse to the child who 
comes friendless into the world and chaplain at the 
burial of the man who goes friendless out of it. 
He is assessor and collector of taxes — treasurer and 
comptroller; he is the teacher of seventeen million 
children, youths, men and women; he is public 
librarian and maker of books ; overseer of the poor 
and supervisor; superintendent, doctor, nurse and 
guard in hospital, prison and almshouse; coroner 
and keeper of the potter's field. He is mayor, judge, 
public prosecutor and sheriff. He is a soldier in the 
army and a sailor in the navy, general and admiral, 
legislator, justice, member of the cabinet, Governor 
and President. 

It has been said that "Democracy is always 
dreaming of a nation of kings ;" kings in the sense 
of men who are monarchs of themselves at least, 
clear visioned, strong-willed, clean-virtued sover- 
eigns. It is of that dreaming, of that longing, that 
you have been educated. But in another sense the 
"kings" of democracy are these "thirtieth men/' 
anointed, appointed, not by some far-seeing prophet, 
living apart from the people, but selected of the 
hurried and often fickle desires of men in the midst 
of the struggle for existence. The gathering of 
votes for such kings in rough boxes, in tailor shops 
or barber shops or like places, does not impress one 



272 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

with the importance and sacredness of the fran- 
chise. And yet the timid journey of Samuel to a 
village in Judaea to anoint a son of Jesse to the 
kingship, was not a more significant pilgrimage than 
is that of a mechanic, merchant or lawyer who goes 
into the booth to cast his vote for the thirtieth man, 
in a republic. 

Many of you will be called to act as public ser- 
vants ; all of you, by the very fact of your education, 
will be called to public service. And did any king 
of ancient or even modern time, for example, have 
a higher commission than that which one generation 
gives to a teacher in its public school, college or uni- 
versity, to prepare its children for a better, happier, 
nobler living in the next generation? Can you 
imagine 'a king anointed to a holier service than that 
to which a nurse is set apart of public sympathy and 
utter unselfishness? Or a doctor, or bacteriologist, 
or health officer guarding us against the pestilence 
that walks in darkness ? Or the public-spirited citi- 
zen, with no axes to grind, throwing light upon the 
path that leads to better government ? It is to such 
service that you will all be called. You will be in 
the public service. You will be the kings of whom 
democracy is dreaming. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 273 



What's the Use? 

Selected from Caxton Magazine 

This is a "heart-to-heart talk," and should be made so in delivery. 
Note that the first two paragraphs state the case for "the hosts of 
Despair." The case is to be stated plainly, but not too strongly. 
Beginning the third paragraph you begin presenting your side, and 
here greater emphasis and force should come, continuing to the end. 

A skull and cross-bones, and underneath the de- 
vice: — "What's the use?" That is the dark flag 
flying at the head of the hosts of Despair. 

"What's the Use?" says the girl. She is tired of 
trying. Every circumstance seems a push of Fate. 
The arts of bad men and the indifference of the 
good, the heartlessness of women, and the persist- 
ency of evil luck — all combine against her. She 
takes "the easie_st way." The bank clerk yields, 
embezzles ; the ex-convict struggles awhile to be 
straight, and gives up; the harassed wife turns to 
betrayal; the bankrupt merchant flees by way of 
suicide. "What's the use?" they say. 

It is the coward's question. It is the pusillani- 
mous whine of the weakling. It is the despicable 
excuse of the traitor. For there is always use. If 
you have failed, it is only that you are to succeed in 
a better way, — if you will. If you have done folly, 
it is that out of it shall come a maturer wisdom. If 
you have sinned, it is that by repentance and refor- 
mation you shall enter into a more human mode of 
living. 

The one great teaching that runs through all re- 
ligions is that we may step upon our dead selves, and 



274 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

make our faulty past be the stairs whereon to climb 
to a finer future. No more damnable gospel was ever 
spread than that for you, or for any man or woman, 
"There is no hope." If you have a stout heart left 
and any piece of sovereign will, rise up, take the 
open road, adjust your burden better to your 
shoulders, and breast once more this adventurous 
existence. The first belief is a belief in your star, 
in your partnership with favorable destiny. Say to 
Despair and Gloom and all their maudlin sisters, 
"What's the use ?" And rise up and come away ! 



What is a Good Man 

Edward A. Ross 

The writings or speeches of Mr. Ross, now Professor of Sociology 
at the University of Wisconsin, will always make you think. His 
phrases have meat and punch in them. This selection is no exception. 
Get the thought, make your hearers get it as you speak, and send it 
forth to them in a straight-from-the-shoulder manner. 

One is not "good" because he is strict and punc- 
tual in devout observances. When prompted by a 
canny concern for one's salvation, church-going, 
Sabbath-keeping, and fasting are no more goodness 
than is careful attention to one's fire insurance 
policies. Nor do correct habits constitute good- 
ness. Abstinence from liquor or tobacco may be 
no more meritorious than abstinence from Welsh 
rarebit. Nevertheless, self-control is a requisite and 
no one enslaved by his appetite is in the way of 
virtue. 

The beginning of goodness is to stand on one's 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 275 

own feet. This requires moral stamina, now that 
there are so many new ways of being a parasite. 
For your tainted news is a climbing upon other 
people's backs, Mr. Editor. So is your secret re- 
bate, Mr. Shipper; your stock juggle, Mr. Financier; 
your perfunctory supervision, Mr. Official ; your 
whitewashing investigation, Mr. Legislator; your 
hold-up strike, Mr. Walking Delegate. 

To stand on one's own feet is to abide by the 
rules of the game. The insurance men who buy 
a block of stock with the agreement that it is theirs 
if the price goes up, but the company's if the price 
goes down, the traffic men who withhold the facili- 
ties of a common carrier from rival coal operators, 
the candidate who nullifies his public pledges with 
a secret pledge, the editor who palms off paid stuff 
as editorial opinion, the preacher who lays away the 
sermons that might grate on the rich pew-holder, 
the professor of economics who shies from the "live 
wire" to burrow into the archaeology of his subject 
— these commit breach of confidence. They are 
not playing the game as it is generally understood. 

But the good man will help others, and when he 
comes to spend himself for others two paths are 
open. He may minister to the suffering, like the 
Red Cross nurse, or the charity worker ; or he may 
uphold and improve the rules of the game. Though 
less picturesque, the latter way is none the less 
flinty. For ages the Good Samaritan has borne the 
palm. But what of the inspector who reports the 
scandalous state of affairs on the Jericho Road, 
even though the chances are his superiors will 



270 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

pigeonhole his report and dismiss him? What of 
the prosecutor who commits political harakari in 
order to get the men "higher up" who protect and 
blackmail the thieves working the Jericho Road? 
The Samaritan risked a big tavern bill ; these risk 
a livelihood. Which is the better man ? 

Commercialism and Idealism 

Francis G. Peabody 

The speaker is Professor of Christian morals in Harvard Univer- 
sity. The occasion was the annual banquet of the New England 
Society of New York City, December, 1907. The concrete illustra- 
tions in this declamation, in which are skillfully woven the theme, 
will hold the interest of the average audience. 

There is a picture in the State House of Minne- 
sota which tells the story of American experience. 
A prairie schooner with its oxen is toiling west- 
ward, bearing a plain family to some undiscovered 
home, and above this prosaic caravan hover the 
angels of hope and faith and love, pointing the way 
to go. Below is the spirit of commercialism, and 
above the spirit of idealism, and the plodding life 
of America marches on between the angels and the 
soil. 

Here, then, we stand, in these days which are 
testing the American character, and in the conflict 
of these two forces lies the problem of our future. 
Are we to be the victims of our own prosperity, 
and robbed of our ideals by the very magnitude of 
our commercial gains? Then we shall go the way 
of earlier nations, Persia, Egypt, Rome, and the 
history of our decline will become a warning and 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 277 

a byword to the world. Or is it possible that the 
very conditions of our commercial life are likely 
to create among us a new idealism ; not the languid 
and aesthetic taste which drives people away from 
our democracy and makes them at home among 
aristocracies, monarchies, castles, and ruins, but the 
robust and virile idealism which issues from great 
tasks, summoning to their service the best that is 
in men? Many signs of the times, I think, may 
encourage one in the thought. There is a bridge at 
Geneva, set where two rivers meet in the turbulent 
rivalry of conflicting currents. One stream, the 
Rhone, has flowed down between pasture banks and 
runs clear as crystal in a broad, deep channel. The 
other stream, the Azr, is a glacial torrent, hurrying 
and tumultuous with the melting of the ice. For 
a time the muddy torrent seems to overwhelm the 
broader Rhone, and its tranquillity and transparency 
are submerged and denied; but soon the glacial 
impurities sink to the bottom of the stream, and 
the Rhone sweeps unvexed and unpolluted to the 
sea. So meet the forces of commercialism and 
idealism in American life, and the turbulent current 
seems to overwhelm the tranquil flow ; and as one 
leans over the bridge of time it seems as though 
the resulting river must be a turbid glacial stream. 
Steadily, however, from the fountains of an hon- 
orable past the springs of idealism send down their 
full supply, until at last the broader current of 
idealism may subdue the rush of commercialism, 
and the Rhone of American democracy flow to the 
ocean of its destiny, unvexed and free. 



278 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

The Reign of the Common People 

Henry Ward Beecher 

This selection is adapted from a lecture delivered in Exeter Hall, 
London, in 1886, when Mr. Beecher was making his last tour of 
Great Britain. The first two paragraphs are largely expository: 
they state the subject for discussion. Don't slight the touch of humor 
in the second paragraph. The last paragraph is serious discussion 
and earnest appeal. 

When you look upon the experiment of self- 
government in America you may not have a very 
high opinion of it. Why, men will say : "It stands 
to reason that 100,000,000 people ignorant of law, 
ignorant of constitutional history, ignorant of juris- 
prudence, of finance, and taxes and tariffs and 
forms of currency — 100,000,000 people that never 
studied these things — are not fit to rule. What fit- 
ness is there in these people? Well, it is not de- 
mocracy merely; it is a representative democracy. 
Our people do not vote in mass for anything; they 
pick out captains of thought, they pick out the 
men that do know, and they send them to the 
Legislature to think for them, and then the people 
afterward ratify or disallow them. 

But when you come to the Legislature I am 
bound to confess that the thing does not look very 
much more cheering on the outside. Do they really 
select the best men? Yes; in times of danger they 
do very generally, but in ordinary time, "kissing 
goes by favor." You know what the duty of a 
regular Republican-Democratic legislator is. It is 
to get back again next winter. His second duty 
is what? His second is to put himself under that 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 279 

extraordinary providence that takes care of legis- 
lators' salaries. Their next duty after that is to 
serve the party that sent them up and then, if there 
is anything left of them, it belongs to the common- 
wealth. Someone has said very wisely, that if a 
man traveling wishes to relish his dinner traveling 
he had better not go into the kitchen to see where 
it is cooked ; if a man wishes to respect and obey 
the law, he had better not go to the Legislature 
to see where that is cooked. 

There are many great faults in self-government, 
and yet I say that self-government is the best gov- 
ernment that ever existed on the face of the earth. 
How should that be with all these damaging facts? 
"By their fruits, ye shall know them." What a 
government is, is to be determined by the kind of 
people it raises, and I will defy the whole world 
in time past and in time present to show so vast 
a proportion of citizens so well off, so continued, 
so remunerated by their toil as in America. The 
average of happiness under our self-government is 
greater than it ever has been or can be, found 
under any sky, or in any period of human history. 
And the philosophical reason is not far to find; it 
belongs to that category in which a worse thing 
is sometimes a great deal better than a better thing. 
No man ever yet learned by having somebody else 
learn for him. A man learns arithmetic by blunder 
in and blunder out, but at last he gets it. A man 
learns to write through scrawling; a man learns 
to swim by going into the water, and a man learns 
to vote by voting. Now we are not attempting to 



280 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

make a government; we are attempting to teach 
100,000,000 people how to conduct a government 
by self-control, by knowledge, by intelligence, by 
fair opportunity to practice. It is better that we 
should have 100,000,000 men learning through their 
own mistakes how to govern themselves, than it is 
to have an arbitrary government with the whole of 
the rest of the people ignorant. 



The Public Duty of Educated Men 

George William Curtis 

This is an extract from a Commencement address at Union College, 
June 27, 1877. Be sure to place the emphasis so as to bring out the 
thought. Use the circumflex inflections to express the satire at the 
close of the first paragraph. Note and express the contrast in view- 
points in the last paragraph; "then remember" begins an emphatic 
appeal that requires much more force than the preceding part of the 
sentence. 

Public duty in this country is not discharged, 
as is often supposed, by voting. A man may vote 
regularly, and still fail essentially of his political 
duty, as the Pharisee who gave tithes of all that 
he possessed and fasted three times in the week, 
yet lacked the very heart of religion. When an 
American citizen is content with voting merely, he 
consents to accept what is often a doubtful alterna- 
tive. His first duty is to help shape the alternative. 
This, which was formerly less necessary, is now 
indispensable. In a rural community such as this 
country was a hundred years ago, whoever was 
nominated for office was known to his neighbors, 
and the consciousness of that knowledge was a 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 281 

conservative influence in determining nominations. 
But in the local elections of the great cities of to- 
day, elections that control taxation and expenditure, 
the mass of the voters vote in absolute ignorance 
of the candidates. The citizen who supposes that 
he does all his duty when he votes places a premium 
upon political knavery. Thieves welcome him to 
the polls and offer him a choice, which he has done 
nothing to prevent, between Jeremy Diddler and 
Dick Turpin. The party cries of which he is re- 
sponsible are : "Turpin and Honesty," "Diddler and 
Reform." 

There is not an American merchant who would 
send a ship to sea under the command of Captain 
Kidd, however skillful a sailor he might be. Why 
should he vote to send Captain Kidd to the legis- 
lature or to put him in command of the ship of 
state because his party directs? The party which 
to-day nominates Captain Kidd will to-morrow 
nominate Judas Iscariot, and to-morrow, as to-day, 
party spirit will spurn you as a traitor for refusing 
to sell your master. 

But let us not be deceived. While good men sit 
at home, not knowing that there is anything to be 
done, nor caring to know ; cultivating a feeling that 
politics are tiresome and dirty, and politicians vulgar 
bullies and bravos; half persuaded that a republic 
is the contemptible rule of a mob, and secretly long- 
ing for a splendid and vigorous despotism — then 
remember it is not a government mastered by ig- 
norance, it is a government betrayed by intelligence ; 
it is not the victory of the slums, it is the surrender 



282 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

of the schools ; it is not that bed men are brave, 
but that good men are infidels and cowards. 



Truth and Victory 

D. C. Scoville 

For the most part, ringing tones and very strong force should char- 
acterize the delivery of this declamation. A pause and change to 
the conversational style comes at the opening of the third para- 
graph. Express the suspense as the story is unfolded. The climax 
is reached on "Balaklava was won." Then follows a note of pathos, 
and the speech closes with a very strong, ringing appeal. 

The face of the world is changing. When crazy 
old John Coffin went down to the Battery and, 
looking eastward over New York Bay, called out 
"Attention, Europe ! Nations ! by the right, wheel !" 
he saw what sane men see now. Nations are dis- 
covering there is something more terrible than 
armies, something more reliable than battalions and 
bayonets, something wiser than Senators, something 
greater than royalty, something sweeter than liberty. 
Through the Gospel of Peace and through the 
Gospel of War one name is sounding over the 
continents. Truth! inspires the student of history; 
Truth! is the watchword of science; Truth! is the 
victorious cry of Christianity. Graven on the in- 
tellect of the statesman, burned into the brain of 
the philosopher, blazoned upon the standard borne 
in the van of the army of progress. Truth ! is the 
animating shout of the ages. 

In these days of political corruption, while one 
after another of our trusted leaders falls before the 
righteous and relentless indignation of public senti- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 283 

merit, it helps him who despairs of the future to 
remember that company in whose veins flows the 
young blood of the nation, in whose eyes kindle 
the fires of a pure faith, and from whose hearts 
radiate the strong purposes that make nations and 
direct civilization. These shall rise up where need 
is, and go into life's great battle with unfaltering 
heroism ; and under their banner shall gather the 
world's best and bravest youth. 

In the terrible battle of Balaklava two British 
regiments were calmly awaiting the advance of 
twelve times their number of Russians. It was a 
fearful moment. The English and French generals 
and thousands of soldiers looked from the heights 
above upon this heroic handful of silent, motionless 
men who, with sublime courage, held the honor of 
Britain in that supreme hour. The glittering lines 
of Russians came confidently on. They halted in 
very wonderment at the heroism of the devoted 
band of English. Suddenly the British trumpets 
sounded the charge, and the Scotch Greys dashed 
at the foremost line of Russians. It yielded and 
broke. Again the heroic little band gathered its 
thinned and broken ranks, and flung itself against 
the second line. "God save the Queen ! they are 
lost!" cried a thousand of their comrades from the 
heights. It seemed madness, it was madness ; but 
it was madness which knows nothing but success. 
Ten minutes of the agony of suspense, and then 
a wild, spontaneous, tumultuous cheer burst from 
the watching thousands on the hills, and Balaklava 
was won. There, on the post where victory re- 



284 Whining Declamations-How to Speak Them 

warded valor, they lifted tenderly up a dying High- 
lander. He plucked from his breast a cross of 
honor, through which the fatal bayonet had crashed. 
"Take this to mother," said he, "and tell her I was 
struck when we charged the first line, but I could 
not die till we had carried the second." 

And so, in the infinitely nobler battle of life, 
remember, as you stand single and unsupported in 
the conflict of Truth, that the hosts of Heaven, 
whose cause is that day intrusted to your keeping, 
are watching you with infinite solicitude. Heed not 
the odds against you. Ask for no allies. Depend 
upon no reinforcements. Against all the world, 
against wrong government, against corrupt society, 
you alone are invincible, you alone irrestible. 

The Minute Man of the Revolution 

George William Curtis 

This is taken from an oration delivered at the Centennial Cele- 
bration of Concord Fight, April 19, 1876. Note and depict by 
means of tone changes and word-coloring the various pictures that 
are presented in the first paragraph. Note the change of rate re- 
quired in the second paragraph. Following the exclamation of John 
Adams, "Oh, what a glorious morning!" The rate should be much 
faster as the subsequent action is described. In delivering the 
third paragraph, it should be remembered that within sight of the 
speaker stood the statue of the Minute Man which is erected at 
Concord. The last paragraph is an exceedingly strong appeal, and 
the latter part, particularly, should be delivered with all the fire 
and force you can muster. 

The Minute Man of the American Revolution! 
And who was he? He was the old, the middle- 
aged, and the young. He was the husband and 
father, who left his plow in the furrow and his 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 285 

hammer on the bench and marched to die or to be 
free. He was the son and lover, the plain, shy 
youth of the singing school and the village choir, 
whose heart beat to arms for his country and who 
felt, though he could not say, with the old English 
cavalier : 

"I could not love thee, dear, so much, 
Loved I not honor more." 

He was the man who was willing to pour out 
his life's blood for a principle. Intrenched in his 
own honesty, the king's gold could not buy him; 
enthroned in the love of his fellow citizens, the 
king's writ could not take him ; and when, on the 
morning at Lexington, the king's troops marched 
to seize him, his sublime faith saw, beyond the 
clouds of the moment, the rising sun of the America 
we behold, and, careless of self, mindful only of 
his country, he exultingly exclaimed, "Oh, what a 
glorious morning!" And then, amid the flashing 
hills, the ringing woods, the flaming roads, he smote 
with terror the haughty British column, and sent it 
shrinking, bleeding, wavering, and reeling through 
the streets of the village, panic-stricken and broken. 

Him we gratefully recall to-day; him we commit 
in his immortal youth to the reverence of our 
children. And here amid these peaceful fields, — 
here in the heart of Middlesex County, of Lexing- 
ton and Concord and Bunker Hill, — stand fast, Son 
of Liberty, as the minute men stood at the old 
North Bridge. But should we or our descendants, 
false to justice and humanity, betray in any way 



286 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

their cause, spring into life as a hundred years ago, 
take one more step, descend, and lead us, as God 
led you in saving America, to save the hopes of 
man. 

No hostile fleet, for many a year, has vexed the 
waters of our coast; nor is any army but our own 
ever likely to tread our soil. Not such are our 
enemies to-day. They do not come, proudly step- 
ping to the drumbeat, their bayonets flashing in 
the morning sun. But wherever party spirit shall 
strain the ancient guarantees of freedom ; or bigotry 
and ignorance shall lay their fatal hands on edu- 
cation ; or the arrogance of caste shall strike at 
equal rights ; or corruption shall poison the very 
springs of national life, — there, Minute Men of 
Liberty, are your Lexington Green and Concord 
Bridge. And as you love your country and your 
kind, and would have your children rise up 
and call you blessed, spare not the enemy. Over 
the hills, out of the earth, down from the clouds, 
pour in resistless might. Fire from every rock and 
tree, from door and window, from hearthstone and 
chamber. Hang upon his flank from morn till sun- 
set, and so, through a land blazing with holy in- 
dignation, hurl the hordes of ignorance and corrup- 
tion and injustice back, — back in utter defeat and 
ruin. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 287 

The Power of Ideas 

L. G. Long 

The oral interpretation of this declamation requires deep, in- 
tense thought. Moderate rate and strong, voluminous tones should 
generally characterize the delivery throughout. 

Men act in bodies; they think in solitude. The 
world's thought is the product of a few master 
minds. A new idea, a new spark struck from the 
brain forge of some God-sent genius, lights the 
world for ages. Around each intellectual luminary 
floats a multitude of satellites, who drink in the 
brilliancy of his pure, strong rays, but emit a feeble 
and languid light which serves only to deepen their 
own obscurity in its original splendor. The world 
is full of critics and commentators who bend and 
warp and twist the truth that already exists to fit 
their own environment. An age of business and 
barter is not conducive to profound thought; an 
age of books and newspapers is ill adapted to 
original thinking. Few are they who think, who 
create, who are known to add one title to the store- 
house of knowledge. 

Only the success of a new idea renders its author 
famous. What, then, do we understand by the 
success of an idea? An idea succeeds whenever 
it ceases to be a pure mental abstraction, a mere 
child of fancy, and becomes a real entity, bodied 
forth in some visible, tangible form, in some use- 
ful implement, some work of art, some beneficent 
institution ministering to the moral, intellectual or 
physical needs of men. What was Wesley without 



288 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

a Methodism or Knox without a Presbyterianism ? 
What was Milton without a Paradise Lost or Goethe 
without a Faust? 

The Roman idea succeeded when the shadow of 
the Roman eagle enveloped the whole civilized 
world. The English idea succeeded when her 
"morning drumbeat, keeping pace with the sun, en- 
circled the globe with one continuous and unbroken 
strain of the martial airs of England." The Ameri- 
can idea succeeded when the Stars and Stripes, 
baptized and consecrated by the blood of revolution, 
rebaptized and reconsecrated by the blood of rebel- 
lion, ceased to be the symbol of a loose and unstable 
federation of states, and became the sacred emblem 
of a great and glorious nation. 

Where do we find ideas that will endure? Not 
in the busy marts of trade; not in the alcoves of 
dusty libraries ; not amid the gaud and splendor of 
the gay salon ; not in palaces rich with the decora- 
tions and adornments of lavished fortunes, but in 
some cloistered retreat, where the soul of man lives 
close to the heart of nature, where God's face is 
not obscured by the dust and smoke of cities, where 
some Plato muses in his leafy grove, or where some 
Emerson meditates beneath the shade trees of his 
Concord farm — there, in such secluded spots, great 
ideas struggle into life. 

Better were it that Galileo heard not the voice 
of the priest, but saw the swinging of the chandelier. 
Better for mankind that Moses left the discontented 
Israelites and climbed Mount Sinai. Better for 
humanity that Watt lost himself in his own deep 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 289 

reflections or Edison sinks from sight in the crystal 
sea of his own great thoughts. Well may society 
afford to lose the splendid presence of these noble 
souls, if from the ashes of their burnt-out minds 
arise on Phcenix wings those sublime truths which 
serve as beacon lights to a benighted world, a bless- 
ing to mankind. 

The Still Undiscovered America 

Leslie Willis Sprague 

This is an extract delivered before the Society of Ethical Culture, 
Brooklyn, N. Y., October 3, 1909. "The conversational raised to 
its highest power" is the style that should characterize the delivery. 

America called to the Old World and the ships 
of discoverers came. Again she called and colonists 
came to make here their homes and graves. She 
called and daring spirits pressed into the primeval 
forests, over desert and mountain, and to the West- 
ern boundaries of her great continent. She called 
for those who would give her liberty and brave 
men arose to fight her battles. She called for 
union, and Lincoln and a mighty army responded. 
Again she called, this time for energy and enter- 
prise, and millions from all lands came gladly to 
plow her fields, build her railroads, canals and cities 
and create her commerce. 

America, at first a land, has become a govern- 
ment, a people, a life. It must become, it will be- 
come, a higher and yet higher life. The exploration 
of the real America is not made with boats, nor 
through pathless forests or trailless deserts. The 
way is over the unmarked spaces of the ideal that 



290 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

lead to liberty, fraternity and truth. America is 
discovered in the heart of him who presses toward 
the visions of liberty, fraternity and truth. 

Righteousness is a cornerstone of the ideal 
American religious liberty; liberty to be and do 
what conscience appoints has been and is still the 
motive of the immigrant. It was out of a sense 
of the infinite meaning and eternal necessity of 
justice that America came. Her founders and 
builders sought to read new meaning in the eternal 
law. Now, as ever, Americans must study and seek 
to incarnate the moral law. 

There are grave ills that threaten not only the 
discovery of the ideal America, but even the per- 
petuation of what America has become. The 
present dangers lie in the inordinate power of 
selfish, clear-conscious, concentrated wealth, which 
bids defiance to justice, fraternity and truth. The 
debased political life so general throughout the 
land makes a travesty of liberty. The business life 
that boldly disclaims any object other than mone- 
tary gain, and is so often indifferent to the claims 
of humanity, is a deadly foe of the real America. 
The waste of America's blood-gained wealth 
through liquor and luxury is sapping the vitality of 
the nation. The neglect of the poor, the exploita- 
tion of labor, the rack-renting suffered by the city 
dweller, the slaughter of the innocents in mills and 
mines and by the railroads, the bleeding of the con- 
sumer by the trusts, these agencies of starvation, 
pauperization, and demoralization stand in the way 
of the discovery of the true and larger America. 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 291 

The American spirit is social. It calls for co- 
operation. It requires organization. The America 
of which patriotic hearts dream is not realized in 
the personal life alone, but it comes when all men 
are rightly joined in a right social relationship. 
"Each for himself" is the motto of anarchy. It 
may also serve aristocracy and royalty. "Each for 
all and all for each" is the motto of American 
progress. 

Efficiency and Riches 
Bert Moses 

This is taken from an article in the Claxton Magazine for 
December, 1913. Direct, strong talk is the style required for its 
delivery. 

This is a message to men whose aspiration is to 
be somebody rather to be rich. God knows it is 
time more was said about men themselves and less 
about money. We have been surfeited with talks 
on so-called efficiency by more or less efficient 
writers, and the moment is here to say that the 
pushing of men to their utmost physical capacity 
and the piling up of the utmost profits are not 
necessarily all there is worth while. 

A message of hope and good cheer is this — a 
slap on the shoulder, a grasp of the hand and a 
godspeed to him who would be called "blessed" by 
both the inefficient and efficient. Of the hundreds 
of millions of men who have passed through this 
thing we call "life," a scanty few have left an 
impress that the resistless movement of the ages has 
not swept away. And among the names of these 



292 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

mental giants whose fame has so long outlived their 
clay, I fail to find one whose renown is built upon 
an ability to attain great riches. Quite recently a 
prominent gentleman gave the names of twenty men 
who, in his opinion, had most benefited the human 
race. This list has been revised and rewritten many 
times, and among all the names in all the lists not 
one appears of a "rich man," as we understand 
that term to-day. 

There are living to-day in America but two men 
whose fame for all time seems secure, and those 
two men are Edison and Burbank. There is living 
to-day no editor who will jostle Greeley and Dana 
from the place of honor in journalistic history. 
There is living to-day no American statesman with 
the mental reach of Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, 
Clay, Webster or Lincoln. Gone is Beecher, and 
we look in vain for a preacher who really has some- 
thing to say. Not a single politician can be named 
whose honesty and sincerity are unquestioned, and 
whose purposes are generally credited as unselfish. 
Our writers no longer write what they think, but 
rather what will sell. Our actors play in plays that 
pay, and not in plays that elevate. All have lost 
their personality, and "Take the cash and let the 
credit go." 

Possibly this indictment is too broad, but the fact 
remains that personality and genius have little to 
urge them on in this generation. I have never 
been able to see any great good come from doing 
a thing a certain way simply because somebody else 
did it that way. The world's prizes are bestowed 






Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 293 

upon those who break away from the fixed customs, 
and beat a new path where others have not dared 
to go. Do not be too anxious about annexing more 
money than you need, but annex all the joy you 
can as you go through life by feeling and knowing 
that you are free — that you are liberating your 
forces in a labor that is done as you wish to do it. 
God has ordained but one way for you to be some- 
body, and that way is to Be Yourself — and use com- 
mon sense, 



The Masterpiece of God 

Elbert Hubbard 

In preparation for speaking this selection, study a reproduction 
of the "Mona Lisa." The declamation itself will bear intensive 
study. A slow rate, permitting ample time for the imagination to 
work and for the emotional coloring of the words, is required for 
effective delivery. 

The human face is the masterpiece of God. A 
woman's smile may have in it more sublimity than 
a sunset; more pathos than a battle-scarred land- 
scape ; more warmth than the sun's bright rays ; 
more love than words can say. The human face is 
the masterpiece of God. 

On the walls of the Louvre, in Paris, hangs the 
"Mona Liza" of Leonardo da Vinci. This picture 
has been four hundred years an exasperation and 
an inspiration to every portrait-painter who has put 
brush to palette. Well does Walter Pater call it 
"The Despair of Painters." The artist was over 
fifty years of age when he began the work, and he 
was four years in completing the task. 



294 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

There is in the face all you can read into it and 
nothing else. It is as silent as the lips of Memnon, 
as voiceless as the Sphinx. It suggests to you every 
joy that you have ever felt, every sorrow you have 
ever known, every triumph you have ever experi- 
enced. 

This woman is beautiful, just as all life is beauti- 
ful when we are in health. She has no quarrel with 
the world — she loves and she is loved again. No 
vain longing fills her heart, no feverish unrest dis- 
turbs her dreams, for her no crouching fears haunt 
the passing hours — that ineffable smile which plays 
round her mouth says plainly that life is good. 

Back of her stretches her life, a mysterious purple 
shadow. Do you not see the palaces turned to 
dust, the broken columns, the sunken treasures, the 
creeping mosses, and the rank ooze of fretted 
waters that have undermined cities and turned 
kingdoms into desert seas? The galleys of pagan 
Greece have swung wide for her on the un forget- 
ting tide, for her soul dwelt in the body of Helen 
of Troy, and Pallas Athena has followed her ways 
and whispered to her even the secrets of the gods. 
Aye! not only was she Helen, but she was Leda, 
the mother of Helen. Then she was St. Anne, 
mother of Mary; and next she was Mary, visited 
by an angel in a dream, and followed by the wise 
men who had seen the Star in the East. And so 
this Lady of the Beautiful Hands stood to Leonardo 
as the embodiment of a perpetual life ; moving in a 
constantly ascending scale, gathering wisdom, gra- 
ciousness, love, even as he himself in this life 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 295 

met every experience half-way and counted it joy, 
knowing that experience is the germ of power. 

Life writes its history upon the face, so that all 
those who have had a like experience read and 
understand. The human face is. the masterpiece of 
God. 

A Young Man's Religion and His Father's Faith 

N. McGee Waters 

This selection is taken from a volume of sermons with the above 
title. The pulpit eloquence of our day is seen at its best in these 
sermons. Note that the first paragraph is simply introductory and 
should be so indicated by the delivery. The second paragraph begins 
the discussion proper. 

All the wisdom of any age is sorely needed to 
understand a young man's religion and determine 
its relation to his father's faith. Both the man 
and the boy should pray for guidance. Often they 
fail to understand one another. I heard an old 
man say, "The world isn't like it was in the olden 
days. People do not go to church like they used 
to. People do not read their Bible like they used 
to. The church does not have revivals like it used 
to. People do not get converted like they used to. 
Joining the church does not mean what it used to. 
Young people to-day are taught all sorts of strange 
notions and they do not believe things we used to. 
It is an age of worldliness and free-thinking. Re- 
ligion is at ebb tide. The church is going to decay. 
Our young people have lost their faith." And the 
old man was sincere and he was sad. 

Now both the old man and the young one are 
right, and both are wrong. The old man is right 



296 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

when he thinks the young man lacking in respect. 
Irreverence is the besetting sin of youth. The old 
man is right when he says that the times have 
changed, and the customs have changed, and the 
creeds have changed, only we have changed more 
than he dreams. We live in a world of change. 
Every generation demands a new and larger ex- 
pression. We do live in a different world from 
that in which our fathers lived. 

We live in the days since Martin Luther. For 
one thousand years the priests had kept the con- 
science of every man. For a thousand years dark- 
ness had rested upon the earth. Then a German 
priest, heavy hearted with the ignorance of the 
people, and aflame with wrath because of the cor- 
ruption in the church and the oppression of the 
priests, put a trumpet to his lips and blew on it 
such a blast that the slumbering masses of Europe 
were awakened as from a, dream. That day the 
world learned that religion was larger than men 
had dreamed. We live in the days since Copernicus 
and Galileo. One of them discovered a truth and 
was afraid to publish it to the world; the other 
one published that truth and went to the prison and 
the rack for his deed. That day we found out that 
the universe was a thousand times larger than our 
fathers had dreamed. 

Other scholars came. One, a little while ago, was 
a student of books, and lands, and seas. He read 
God's handwriting upon the rocks and stars. Gath- 
ering up bits of wisdom from field and mountain, 
mica-flake and ocean ooze, he pieced together the 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 297 

great story of God's creation. And lo! the world 

was not made in a week and man in a moment, but 

instead — 

"I doubt not through the ages an increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process 
of the suns." 

Evolution is a larger story of Divine Providence 
than any of the fathers dreamed. 

Other scholars came. And these began to study 
the Bible and lo ! instead of a book, a library ; in- 
stead of a proof text, a literature; instead of a 
dictation, an experience ; instead of a typewriter for 
an inspired man, a poet, a seer, a martyr. And the 
Bible became greater and grander than ever before. 
Revelation instead of being a tiny lake, crystal in 
depth, and lost amid the hills, was like the bound- 
less ocean, thundering on all shores and refreshing 
all lands. The Bible took on a new splendor and 
a new dignity that day. 

The Homeland 

Nehemiah Boynton 

This is an extract from a speech delivered before the New 
England Society, New York City, December, 191 1. Note the 
skillful manner in which the theme is linked with the opening 
illustrative story. Be sure that your hearers get the point. If 
well delivered, the sentiment and language of this selection will 
make a strong appeal to any audience. 

Many of you know your Wordsworth, and you 
doubtless remember the pastor and the little com- 
pany out in the open in Merry England that looked 
up the road and saw a man coming along driving 
a brave team of horses that were drawing a load 



298 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

of logs. The man himself was in the evening of 
his life; the white hair was curling about the fore- 
head, but there was the ruddy glow of health upon 
his cheek and the splendid magnificence of his 
stature, which never had been bent by increasing 
years, was still his. He was a man who looked, so 
the poet said, "as if he were in the possession of 
freedom, and of gaiety, and of health"; "he was 
a man," so the poet said, "who had escaped the 
fear of loss, and likewise the pride of having." In- 
deed, as he pointed to him, the pastor said, "There 
goes a man who seems to be a man of cheerful 
yesterdays and of confident to-morrows." That is 
the man who has lived over and over again in real 
life in the person of our forbears, who were four 
square and ambidextered men in their own lives 
and hearts, and especially in the hearts of the chil- 
dren who have come after them. 

And so, fellow Americans, it is because of these 
cheerful yesterdays which rise above all egotism 
and all pessimism, because of these confident to- 
morrows, that you and I may well rejoice that it 
is ours to live beneath the Stars and Stripes and 
may turn away from the felicities of an hour like 
this with a nobler pulse beat in our hearts and a 
truer purpose in our souls to reproduce in our day 
and in our generation, according to the need of 
the times in which we live, the spirit — the ideal, the 
four square characters — of those brave men of 
yesterday. 

Ah! If one is far away from America some- 
times the recollection of the beauty and the true- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 299 

ness of the homeland comes in upon him with over- 
powering influence. Have you never felt it your- 
self when in some far away and foreign city, per- 
haps, separated from your friends, you have thought 
of the conditions, social, political, religious, which 
were about you, and then, as in the twinkling of 
an eye, have thought about those conditions social, 
political and domestic, which are yours in the "land 
of the free and home of the brave ?" Do you not 
remember how your heart beat with a great pride 
on the one hand, and a great longing on the other? 
Why? Because you do believe in those cheerful 
yesterdays as the basis on which shall be erected 
the confident to-morrows. 

One who, I judge, has often been in this com- 
pany, and very likely has been at this table, had 
such an experience. He was sitting one day in a 
hotel in London when it seemed to him as if his 
heart would break if he could not take a steamship 
for the homeland before nightfall, but that was ab- 
solutely impossible; and so, because he was a man 
whose soul sentiment, compelled by its throo, took 
the muse of song, he took out his pad and pencil 
and this is what he wrote : 

O! London is a fine town, 
It is a man's town; 

There is power in the air. 
And Paris is a woman's town, 

With flowers in her hair; 
And it's good to live in Venice, 

And it's fine to walk in Rome, 
But when you talk of living, 

There's no place like home. 



300 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

And it's home again, home again, 

America for me. 
My heart is turning home again, 

To my own country — 
To the blessed land of room enough, 

Beyond the ocean bars, 
Where the air is filled with sunshine, 

And the flag is filled with stars. 



The Mission of America 

Woodrow Wilson 

This 19 an extract of a speech delivered before the Manhattan 
Club, New York City, November 4, 19 15. Problems arising out 
of the Great War in Europe are reflected in the first paragraph. 
The concluding paragraph contains a particularly strong appeal, 
requiring deep feeling and strong force. 

The mission of America in the world is essen- 
tially a mission of peace and good will among men. 
She has become the home and asylum of men of all 
creeds and races. Within her hospitable borders 
they have found homes and congenial associations 
and freedom and a wide and cordial welcome, and 
they have become part of the bone and sinew and 
spirit of America itself. America has been made up 
out of the nations of the world and is the friend of 
the nations of the world. America has not opened 
its doors in vain to the men and women out of other 
nations. The vast majority of those who have come 
to take advantage of her hospitality have united 
their spirits with hers as well as their fortunes. 
These men who speak alien sympathies, who raise 
the cry of race against race or of church against 
church, who attempt to create divisions and an- 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 301 

tagonisms where there are none, — such men are not 
the spokesmen of the great mass of Americans, but 
the spokesmen of small groups whom it is high time 
that the nation should call to a reckoning. The chief 
thing necessary in America in order that she should 
let all the world know that she is prepared to main- 
tain her own great position is that the real voice of 
the nation should sound forth unmistakably and in 
majestic volume, in the deep unison of a common, 
unhesitating national feeling. I do not doubt that 
upon the first occasion, upon the first opportunity, 
upon the first challenge, that voice will speak forth 
in tones which no man can doubt and with com- 
mands which no man dare gainsay or resist. 

Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. 
What shall we do with it? Who is there who does 
not stand ready at all times to act in her behalf in a 
spirit of devoted and disinterested patriotism? We 
are yet only in the youth and first consciousness of 
our power. The day of our country's life is still 
but in its fresh morning. Let us lift our eyes to the 
great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the inter- 
ests of righteous peace. Come, let us renew our 
allegiance to America, conserve her strength in its 
purity, make her chief among those who serve 
mankind, self -reverenced, self-commanded, mis- 
tress of all forces of quiet counsel, strong above 
all others in good will and the might of invincible 
justice and right. 




302 Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 

Life's Retrospect 

Clarence N. Ousley 

This is the concluding part of an address of the graduating classes 
of the University of Texas, June, 19 14. Remember the occasion: 
the final words to college graduates about to take up the duties of 
life. The tone is one of sustained seriousness. The last para- 
graph, particularly, should be charged with deep emotion, and de- 
livered in a moderate to slow rate, so that the feeling may have 
time to mature and to find expression. 

Let me at this time repeat the old and everlasting 
truth, that no man liveth to himself alone. We are 
in a world of complex currents which make us 
mutually dependent. We cannot thrive but by the 
patronage of our neighbors ; we cannot win but by 
their confidence and favor, which we cannot hold 
if we do not serve them in turn. So it comes to the 
seeming paradox that unselfishness, after all, is true 
self-interest, for it is not only the means of success 
but the only insurance of self-respect without which 
no reward is worth having. 

I pity the man of fame or fortune who comes to 
the court of final accounting a bankrupt in service 
to his fellows. I pity him because he has missed the 
sweetest joy of living. I pity him as he stands be- 
fore his God stripped of his fine raiment and self- 
conceit, with nothing in his hands but the itch for 
gold which he can no longer clutch, and nothing in 
his heart but the hunger for applause which he can 
no longer hear. 

You young men and women to-day are starting 
up the morning slope of life, and I envy you the 
journey. It is a beautiful way, for you are facing 



Winning Declamations-How to Speak Them 303 

the sun, and the shadows fall behind you. It is a 
joyous way, even though there be stones to bruise 
your feet and thorns to prick your hands, for hope 
makes the heart sing though the eyes may weep. I 
wish for you a speedy and a safe ascent to the crest 
of high achievement. Presently, before you are 
hardly aware, it will be afternoon and you will 
turn downward on the long decline. The sun will 
shine behind you, the shadows will fall in front of 
you, and in the far distance of the faint gray rim 
of time you will perceive the mysterious wood that 
fringes the more mysterious stream of sleep upon 
which you will embark for another land that lies 
beyond the shadow and the mystery and the silent 
river. Let me hope that as you descend, your medi- 
tations will be disturbed only by the songs of those 
you have helped up the morning slope; that as you 
go down the stumbling way of decrepitude, you will 
be steadied by strong hands that have felt the touch 
of your kindness ; that when you embark, your voy- 
age through the deep waters will be guided by the 
beacon light of an unwavering faith, and that when 
you come into the land of everlasting sunshine and 
unfading flowers, you will receive the welcome of 
divine fellowship for which a life of service has 
made you somewhat worthy. 



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